Half Empty or Half Full?

I bet that everybody has probably mastered the art of faking happiness. The world, as people perceive it, only admits fleeting moments of happiness and nothing else beyond. We keep chasing an illusion we’ve been made to believe is truly out there: happiness.

Happiness has never been a strange idea to anyone. When we are asked about our understanding of happiness, we tend to overplay it with little triumphs of rhetoric. We cling to the idea that happiness is the embodiment of perfection within the complexities of human emotion.

The passage of three years hasn’t cost me much in losing track of what happened on one ordinary day in high school. It was my English teacher, who had a lavish obsession with her own wit. But a brief snippet of her tale that day was enough to grab the attention of a student sitting in the last seat of the last row—me. It felt as if she had launched an arrow straight at my spot, turning my repressed yawns into a suppressed smile. She then pointed to the water bottle sitting on her desk and asked the class whether it was half empty or half full. I was sure I would answer the former, but she exclaimed in her rich English voice that our answers reflected our worldview. An optimist sees a half-full glass, while a pessimist sees it as half-empty.

I realized that the purpose of her question wasn’t to focus on the fact that the bottle was fifty percent filled with water, but to highlight the different frameworks through which individuals perceive the same reality.

Perhaps we don’t need to limit our natural emotions to just happiness. Some people are optimists who see the glass as half full, but not everyone can be like them. True happiness lies in embracing reality. And the reality is that you can be a pessimist at times, seeing the glass as half empty. We don’t have to set aside other normal emotions just to chase happiness. If we do, I fear we may lose the ability to truly cope with the world as it is. If you’re sad, let your personal rain clouds pour down over your head. If you’re riddled with anxiety, let your heart skip a beat from nervousness. If you’re not in the mood, sulk and be mad at the world temporarily. When you feel negative, embrace it. Don’t consume yourself with the idea that if you fake it, you’ll make it. Accepting the full spectrum of emotions is far more honest and liberating.

If someone says, "We just gotta look on the bright side,"

You can channel Hayley from Paramore and reply, "Well, only if you wanna go blind."