Feelings

As a child, we are taught what feelings or emotions are on some type of note card, or in some flip book, which is accompanied by a picture. If one is sad, we are taught they are frowning. If one is happy, they are smiling. If one is angry, their face is squinted, which then also follows up with red puffy cheeks. What if this was all hypothetical? What if while someone was sad, they were smiling? Or if someone was angry, and they didn't have bright red cheeks and a puckered mouth? As a child, we cannot be taught reality.

Pain is a feeling that needs to be felt in this world. Society has a hard time accepting that. I had a hard time accepting that as well, I used to think that if someone wasn't happy or smiling then something was wrong with them.There's nothing wrong with them, they're simply human, and until now, I didn't know that was possible.

It is easier to be sad in this world. You have to strive for happiness, I mean lets face it, some people can't even get off the couch, so why in the world would they try to be happy? Material things such as new technology, food, raises, and clothing provide people with the fake happiness they can live off of. Not saying that you shouldn't be happy when you get the newest version of an iPod, but when that is all you have to be happy for, things don't go so smoothly. Your path starts to get rocky, you thrive for a happiness, and you just don't understand. This is what happened to me.

At one point in your life you have seen some post by a sappy teenager that reads something like this; Fake a smile, even at your worst. OR I'm smiling on the outside, but I'm dying on the inside.  As humans we don't enjoy the feeling of being vulnerable. I like to call it being naked. Obviously i'm not talking about physically, but emotionally. I think (metaphorically)  that your clothes are your materialistic happiness we all have. They keep you from being naked and vulnerable. You don't have to show your true colors, which is something a majority of us fear. Why do we fear such a thing? Posters and messages are plastered all around our life telling us to just be ourselves. How exactly do we do that? Judgement is something I fear. It's a silly fear, but it's a legitimate one. I'm afraid to be naked, to share my thoughts sometimes. Knowing someone could shoot my idea down, or give me a dirty look for something I said, is something that is very scary to me.  Writing this now, I feel stupid. Where is the Bridget that didn't care? The Bridget that did her own thing, because that's what she wanted to do? Maybe that Bridget just gave up. Simply because she didn't receive the followers she wanted. My life is completely irrelevant to all of this. What I want YOU to get out of this, the reader, is that in life we should learn how to be naked. How to be vulnerable. How to accept sadness, or depression and take it by the horns. I say, with time, we can all learn how to accept our feelings. Good luck on your travels my friends.