If one thing is certain, it’s that no one’s life is a perfect picture. Every one of your friend’s social media accounts presents a “perfect” life. However, deep down, we all know that we only get to see the most appealing sides of our loved ones’ lives. No one ever figures that we want to read about their divorce or their postpartum depression. There’s no possible way that our lives are in turmoil, right? Wrong.
Society often frowns upon sadness because a socially perfect life is supposed to involve constantly holding yourself above water, no matter how much the world wants to see you sink. According to society, you’re either a perfectly happy person or you’re a failure.
For a long time, I felt pressure to be happy. After all, everyone who follows me online sees me as a positive person, and if I complained about anything that bothered me, I was basically failing at my mission in life: keeping everyone else afloat with my own happiness. Sounds a teeny bit unfair, doesn’t it, though?
The pressure to be perfect made both my head and my heart ache. Even though I had every right to voice discomfort with my life as a person with a life-long disability, I felt guilty for complaining. I would post a less-than-positive status online and then delete it right away because I thought that my friends would think that I was depressed.
It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that life is a delicate balance of both happiness and sadness, as intricate as a spider’s web. I learned that it’s my responsibility to make my life as beautiful as I can as I balance all of my emotions.
Then, I realized that my passion balances happiness and sadness perfectly. I spent hours at my computer, letting the words flow onto my computer screen like the pour of a fine glass of wine. No matter the theme or the voice of my writing, I just let it stream from the depths of my soul.
This is when I realized that passion is living with unbridled happiness and accepting sadness, no matter what.
Finally, my life wasn’t about pleasing others with my happiness or downplaying my sadness. I could finally express them both without caring what anyone else thought. I gained my own wings and taught myself to fly away with my new confidence in my emotions. Your ability to express how you feel without a care is the best gift life can possibly give you.
It is ultimately up to you what you do with the gift to go against society and share all your emotions, but I knew that I was going to fly with my own gift. You’ll never know if you don’t try to share what’s on your heart, which is why living authentically has been my biggest blessing.
