It sucks to be the guy standing alone in the hall way, tears, up, mood, down while the rest of the cool dudes are high fiving, chest-beating and congratulating their friend who just smashed an important exam, made a huge gain off Betnaija or smacked the latest hottest new chick on campus.
The above scenario is still not as sad as you intuitively and desperately trying to appear happy just because you've been reading motivational books all year.
At a very young age as children, we learn the language of feelings before we form our first drunken words. When fire touches us, we get hurt then we cry. When someone gets us a present, we are over the moon.
We do this till the age of "reasoning" and at this stage, when hurt, we hide it. And when there's nothing really interesting going on with our lives, we snap make-believe selfies, put them on Instagram and wait anxiously for validation.
Instead of all the fake feelings, follow Charles Bukowski's words: don't try. Don't try to create what is not there, to feel you need to prove to people - who are busy feeling the need to prove to other people - that your life is all bright and shiny.
In place of all that validation-seeking journey, focus on your challenges and what you have to do to overcome them instead of what camera angle you will use to make "them" think all is well with you.
