A Mask Indeed

It’s funny how I am walking around the office today flashing the best smile I could muster everytime I come across somebody. And of course they smile back. Or I smile back at them. And I was thinking, hell, they don’t know how my night went. And they don’t have any idea of how I really feel inside.

And it makes me wonder about the people we come across with, the people we see on the streets, in the store, everywhere. Lots of them have smile on their faces and some of them would even smile and say “Hi, How you doin?” But how many of these people are wearing that beautiful mask of a smile? I went to a Chinese pastry shop for breakfast today before I headed to the office and the pretty Chinese girl on the counter smiled at me. I smiled back thinking, hmmm, I wonder if she has some sort of a heartache at the moment just like I do? Are we wearing the same mask? The funny thing is, this mask I’m sure looks genuine to anyone who doesn’t know me.

I went to the bathroom earlier and look myself in the mirror. I wanted to see myself smile – to check how genuine it looks – and to my surprise, it did look genuine. It will surely fool all the people around me.

A smile is a mask indeed. And a beautiful one at that.