We Were Taught How to Survive, Not How to Feel
F or a long time, I thought something was wrong with me. I could handle responsibility. Pressure. Expectations. But when it came to my emotions, I felt lost — like everyone else got a manual I never received. Nobody ever sat me down and said, “This is how you deal with sadness .” Or, “This is how you speak pain without hurting yourself or others.” So I learned what many of us learned. I learned silence. I learned distraction. I learned how to smile when things were heavy and say “I’m okay” even when I wasn’t. Life taught me how to survive early. How to be strong. How to keep moving. But it didn’t teach me how to feel without guilt , fear , or confusion. There were moments I carried pain I couldn’t explain. Moments I felt behind in life — emotionally, mentally — even when I was doing everything “right” on the outside. And that’s when it hit me. Maybe I wasn’t broken. Maybe I was just never taught. Our generation learned how to adapt in a fast world. How to hustle...