Now and then by the quads, I see a boy who is often skipping and giggling to himself. He seems to have no care, just living in the moment and just basking in the freedom he gets from living at college with childlike innocence. Whenever I see him walking, or rather skipping, around campus, I always wonder where the childlike spark of curiosity and innocence in me has gone. It is not that I don't have any enthusiasm I have a lot of that, but it's more that I never find myself being so free with myself or lose myself in the moment, and I don't think that that's just a "me" problem.
I think that a lot of people, especially people part of the newer generations, struggle with just letting go and acting their age. Whether it be because of the advent of social media or the new societal standards of children, most people forget how young they truly are. The new trend of equating being emotionally detached to something cool has made this situation even worse.
People are forgetting to enjoy the small things in life.
People are forgetting to laugh at silly, harmless jokes.
People are forgetting to live in the moment and let themselves feel emotions.
In other words, people are becoming walking and talking zombies.
The worst part of the whole situation is that we view people who show their feelings as weird people who don't know how to act in society. We give weird looks to people who laugh out loud rather than just saying LOL. We're disgusted by people who shout in public rather than just sending their messages in CAPS. We avoid people who show their enthusiasm in real life rather than just portraying it with their exclamation points.
This disconnect that people are creating with their emotions is not cool and moreover, it's not healthy. It's not only not healthy regarding mental health, but it's most definitely not healthy for any type of relationships. So what I urge you to do all in the next days, weeks, months and years is to display your emotions as you feel them openly.
If you see something funny make sure to laugh out loud in real life, who knows, maybe someone around you needs to hear something funny that day too.
If you need to cry, just let it out, maybe there's someone around you who has been through the same situation.
If you're excited, show it, maybe there's someone else around you that's also equally as excited.
Let us all just be like the boy from the quads, present and open with our emotions. Because the reality is that showing your emotions is not childishness or immaturity, it's called being human.
