The truth is, there is not way to tell what someone has been through and who they are just by looking at them. Everyone in this life has faced something horrible or felt hopeless because of something they went through. Every person carries baggage from their life experiences and anything someone says might hit someone the wrong way, but there is no way to really know. For example, a very close friend of mine went through something really traumatic when she was just about to start high school. She found out that her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and her shattered her whole world. Her mother survived, thank God, but to this day, my friend is still sensitive when it comes to talking about breasts the way young girls often do. She is haunted by the thought of going through what her mother went through.

In fact, anytime she finds out about someone being sick or dying, she cannot handle it. Without meaning to, she responds very negatively and refuses to show any kind of emotion about it because maybe in her world, it is easier to just ignore it so that she never has to feel the pain again. So, like I mentioned before, there is no way to know why a person reacts to a tragedy the way they do just by looking at them. Perhaps they know someone who passed away in the same way that someone on the news did and rather than discuss how tragic the death is, they would rather just flip to the next channel. This does not mean that this person is cruel or incapable of remorse. It just means that some people cry when something horrible happens and others cannot handle awakening those emotions because the don’t know if they’ll survive it.

As humans, we should always be there for one another and understand that we are flawed and often times very vulnerable for different reasons. Everyone should be allowed to feel something the way they know how. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, and it is cruel to assume that someone is less than just because they don’t respond the same way you do. Some people just cannot bear the thought that there is any kind of wicked in this world.