“I walk around like everything is fine, but deep down, inside my shoe, my sock is falling off.”

-The Whisper App

How many of you are sick of people asking, “how are you doing?”

Perhaps, their question comes from a place of genuine concern, but more often than not this greeting seems a meaningless platitude.

You respond, time and again, “Doing good, and yourself?”

What would happen if we actually answered this question with how we were truly feeling?

Well, actually, I am knee-deep in midterms.Overwhelmed by a planner full of deadlines; feeling incompetent as a student, friend and person. I am worried about the big things and the little things, so much so that I can’t sleep.Each hour, I contemplate the reasons for my existence and wonder if all this effort will be worth it.

(Takes a deep breath) But hey, thanks for asking!

We say, “I’m doing fine,” but the sleepless, hollow look in your eyes says otherwise.

When did we start believing that our lives needed to ‘fine and dandy’ 24/7?

That’s such an impossible standard to impose on ourselves, yet, we “put our fake face on and pretend now.”

I wonder if we are unable to be real with people because that would require us to be real with ourselves.

Have we become so competent in the age-old game of make-believe that we have convinced ourselves of this paradisal reality?

As a generation that grew up on Disney, we see characters that ‘whistle why they work’ and never seem to break a sweat, let alone break down.

Our social media is littered with pictures of our filtered lives.Do they tell the real story of our day-to-day?More likely, they tell the story we fabricate when we say “I’m doing fine.”

Fine, huh?

Next time someone asks the inevitable question, respond truthfully and see their response.

I already tried this.What happened was a real conversation, about real problems, with an unfiltered friend.

After answering the platitude authentically, I felt lighter.

Did my friend fix all my problems? No.Did they rid me of all anxiety? No.

Did they make me feel less alone? Yes!

Community is what happens when we let people see our mess.