Pitifully Strong

We call them ‘strong’, they are actually pitiful

Growing up, I have always noticed sensitive people being the target of everyone's pity. I suppose it did not really make sense until pain knocked on my heart's door. Ah, I get it now - what an awful fate to experience feelings so intensely. Without even realising it, I found myself pitying them.

As time went by, though, I came to a realisation. Although sometimes their sensitivity is used to dismiss their feelings, being labelled as sensitive has its perks. By acknowledging someone's sensitivity, you make their feelings more present, more real. And by making their feelings real, you end up treading carefully so as not to bruise them.

Does this mean sensitive people are shielded from the cruelty of the human heart? Absolutely not. But they are more likely to find solace in other watching hearts.

It was at this point that the question struck me: Who, then, are the most pitiful? And the answer I arrived at was far more shocking.

The "strong" ones. Those who seem unbothered. Those who are there for the sensitive and the not-so-sensitive. The "tough" ones. Those who have received praise all their lives for keeping it together so well. The calm and collected ones. The always happy ones.

I noticed they come in many shapes and dispositions. Yet they share something in common - they have been depersonalised. They are regarded as anchors, devoid of feelings of their own. And they play their part surprisingly well. They hide their struggles within themselves as they put on a façade for the rest of the world.

These, the ones who pat their own backs in search of a speck of comfort while their toughness is hailed, are, in fact, the most pitiful ones.