The Masks We wear

I’m an advocate for “be kind to people” because you don’t know what they are going through and today, I actually got to hear something someone has been going through.

So there’s this colleague of mine who makes us laugh so much. Anytime you see me laughing at work, she’s the reason behind it. She always has something hilarious to say. And no matter how sad or angry you are, all you need from her is just one statement. I mostly ask her how she even thinks of the things she says because they never even cross my mind.

I won’t say we’ve become friends but we talk a lot because we stay in the same vicinity and mostly go home together after work. So we were talking about families at work and I realized she wasn’t contributing to the conversation. She wasn’t even making any jokes at all which was so unlike her.

She would mostly make about two jokes during a conversation before the convo comes to an end. So let’s say each conversation lasts for about 5 minutes, we end up laughing for about 3 minutes out of that 5 minutes. But this time, we spoke longer than 5 minutes and she still was quiet.

If I remember correctly, we were all talking about our families. Our favorite persons in our families and a whole lot. But as I said earlier, she was just quiet.
And normally, I hate to ask people questions about their lives because it makes me feel like I’m prying. But this time, it felt different so I asked.

Sad is an understatement of what I felt after hearing her story but I know I was shocked and I will tell you why soon.
So she actually has no relative. Both her parents passed away years ago and she doesn’t have a sibling and doesn’t have aunties and uncles too. She’s basically left alone in this life.

I’m sure you now understand why I was shocked. How can a person going through so much be making us laugh each and everyday? I kept thinking about it after listening to her story. But then, this is a perfect reason why we should be kind to people. You really never know what someone is going through no matter how tough they appear. The least you can do is to just be nice.