I've never been (Un)happier

by Shaheen Bhatt

I’ve learned over the years there’s a big difference between wishing you were dead and wanting to kill yourself.

When describing our emotions, words can only take us so far, yet words are all we have. So often the problem isn’t with the emotions themselves but the language we use to describe them. The drawback of using language as much as we do—as our dominant method of interaction with the world, those around us and even ourselves—is that we sometimes forget how limited the code of language is.

‘We’re the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war … our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.’

‘Take off the mask. You aren’t happy? Fine, you aren’t happy. One day you will be. And then you’ll be sad again. Accept that and stop wasting

your energy chasing something that doesn’t exist. You can’t spend your life feeling bad about feeling bad.’