Hello hello,
Hope you are enjoying your weekend!
I dropped by for a quick hello to share a lecture on emotional intelligence that really touched my heart.
Around the 57 minute mark, the lecturer shares a beautiful poem by one of the students in his school. The young student shares a poem that articulates complex emotions in a heart-touching manner. The child was afraid of sharing the poem because his self-esteem was low. But now it is inspiring so many and helping the speaker lobby the cause of emotional education in schools.
I wanted to share an old poem that I had written when I found myself struggling in a competitive academic programme in a foreign country. When I wrote it, my self-esteem was so low that I never shared it. But I am finally ready to share it.
HAPPY PEOPLE, HURT PEOPLE
I’ve come to believe
there are only 2 kinds of people in this world:
Happy people, hurt people.
(Which kind of people are you today?
I have been both if I might dare say)
Happy people —
seem to carry a spring within them
which keeps gushing forth
with so much heart
Curious passers by stop in their tracks
what’s her deal anyway?
How dare she laugh that easy laugh
that welcome laugh, that gorgeous laugh
Somehow she’s more beautiful
than when you last met her, smarter too,
and seems to have a funny bone in her!
Simply put
happy people are attractive
Well until they’re not–
happy, I mean
Hurt people–
are weird or mean
and are often best avoided
Have you seen how they lash out?
or are just a bad influence on you?
and what about how their faces
are white with fear or green
with envy or pale with lack of emotion
Surely, they could try to be more interesting,
or fun, and maybe some time in the gym
wouldn’t hurt too!
So this is how it is–
there’s only 2 kinds of people in this world
Happy people, Hurt people
And I’m sorry if you’re hurt people today
And I hope that you can find in yourself the strength to see…
you’re just as beautiful on your bad days…
for not giving up on yourself anyway! It is poignantly titled “Happy people, hurt people.” Perhaps, the title captures the binaries that I thought the world operated in. More than 2 years later, I am so glad that art gives me the means to express myself in so many more shades and so much more colour. Each of us is infinitely more complex than the roles we often find ourselves in. We live in a world that is vastly more complex than what we imagined as children. We may belittle ourselves for being different in so many ways and being in the wrong again and again. But, perhaps, when we finally find joy in the complexity of learning about ourselves and learning about this world, we will finally move from surviving to thriving. And if you find yourself drowning, I hope you will find some peace in the design of an interconnected world that pushes us to become our best selves not only for ourselves but for each other.
I don’t know about you but it made all the difference to me.