It Is Okay To Not Be Okay Essay

Decent Essays
This I Believe: It is Okay to Not Be Okay Vulnerability is something that most people struggle with at some point throughout their lives. It is frightening, intimidating, and something that pushes us out of our safe, little comfort zones. Often times showing how you are really feeling is frowned upon. Why do we have to pull ourselves away from a social situation because we are crying? Why do most people respond to “how are you?” with “good” regardless of how they are truly feeling? Since when is being not being okay something to be ashamed of? I strongly believe that not being okay is something that everyone should embrace. Openly not being okay shows true strength, maturity, and it aids in building stronger, more intimate relationships. …show more content…
Face refers to the idea that people have a certain perspective of use and we should try to protect that role as much as possible in order to maintain normal social interactions. If we lose face, we risk having abnormal social interactions and things can get uncomfortable. This prompted me to think about how much we do that throughout the day. We live in a culture where we are expected to put up a front all the time that way we avoid awkward situations and knowing others a little bit too well. We have adopted practices like avoiding eye contact in the bathroom and running to a different room when we cry because that shields those around us from truly knowing who we are as individuals (Goffman, ____). When people ask “how are you” they don’t really want to know how you really are. If you give them a genuine answer like “you know, I am having a really rough day” or essentially anything other than “I’m good, how are you?”they will most likely be taken aback and not know how to respond right away. (Garfinkel____)We are taught at a young age to put on this façade and trudge through life like everything is okay all the time because if you pretend you are okay maybe someday you actually will …show more content…
If we challenged ourselves to open up to others and be authentic with them, they may feel compelled to reciprocate that. As more and more people do that we will have created an environment where there is no shame in crying in front of others and no need to put on happy mask all the time. We will have liberated ourselves of the barriers society has created when it comes to vulnerability and we, as a community, will be able to move towards have deeper, more authentic relationships with each

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