"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

That simple exchange has seemed to make an impact recently. There are memes making fun of girls for obviously not being fine and then there are other memes that point out how it's just a standard answer to keep people from pressing into your life. People want you to be fine or great or anything else that makes your conversation with them that much more pleasant. All of a sudden being "fine" is a thinly veiled thing to say to let people know that you could be better but you don't have to talk about it.

But why, all of a sudden, did not being okay become something abhorred? People act as if not being okay is going to ruin the rest of your life and they don't want to try to comfort you or ask you about what's really going on inside your mind. Generations now just want you to be good enough to go onto the next big thing. Millennials have made this an even bigger issue (sorry guys but we really did screw this one up). Growing up in this generation it's been pounded into our heads that we shouldn't be feeling bad and we shouldn't be emotional.

Mental health awareness is spreading and past generations sometimes just don't understand that we can't flip a switch and all of our depressions and anxieties just go away. We get called spoiled and whiny, but they wonder why we're like this? We've been trained to think we have to be okay all of the time. So we act out and let ourselves get lost in everything else instead of focusing on what really matters: taking care of our emotional health.

Let me lift a weight off of your shoulders and tell you firmly and truthfully: it's okay to not be okay. Scream it from the rooftops, let yourself cry, and buy that gallon of ice cream. Let yourself feel pain and let yourself get lost in your own scary depths but please don't keep pushing it down until it consumes you. I have been there! We've all been there. We've been told that we're too emotional and we shouldn't let things bother us so we keep shoving the tears and pain down until it bubbles out like a volcano and we can taste the ash of suffering.

Let yourself feel and then once it's all out and your tears are nothing but salt tracks on your cheeks just wash your face and don't let yourself feel guilty. Breathe in and out and let happiness fill the spot that anger and sadness had been in until you let it out. Be okay, then don't be okay, and let yourself cycle between the two because that's what it means to be alive.