SMILES CAN BE DECEIVING


The saying that says, “don’t judge a book by its cover” is true. Few months back, I saw a group of school children walking, laughing and smiling on their way to school, which reminded me of my school days with my friend. Those were the best days ever. We were the happiest people everybody wished to be, which ended in tears within a short period of time.

One late evening, just about to have dinner with my family, I received some very disturbing news which even today still shock me. My friend had committed suicide, hanged herself, specifically. I couldn’t believe it since the last time we were together was when we got back from school that same day. Everything seemed to be fine then. She never complained about anything nor showed any signs of sadness. None of us understood what happened, why it happened and, unfortunately, she wasn’t there to explain herself and everything that we wanted to know.

It wasn’t late until one of her family members discovered her diary. In it she mostly wrote about her life and everything happening around her. She talked about a disease she had. She couldn’t share the news with anyone because she feared she would be judged even by me, her friend. All the smiles we saw daily weren’t smiles of happiness but smiles of sorrow and misery. It was then that I realised that smiles can be deceiving.

Some people have lost their loved ones because they assumed that everything was alright when they saw them smiling. Some people smile because they don’t want to be judged, some smile because they have a lot of problems they are trying to hide from people and some smile because they have given up in life which then led them to the cemetery.

Don’t assume that everything is okay when a person is smiling. I realised that not all smiles mean happiness, but there is a story behind those smiles that they are failing to overcome eventually.



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