How To Be Sad
How To Be Sad: A Short Guide
- Stay up until 3 a.m., while the rest of the world sleeps.
- Listen to sad songs on repeat.
- Pick fights with people who love you.
- Stop going out.
- Don't call friends.
- No more eye contact.
- Say mean things about yourself often.
- Sigh. All the time.
- Stop believing in things you find important.
- Believe no one understands you.
- Eat bad food that makes you feel worse.
- Stay in bed or on the couch.
- Chase people away, then hate them because they left.
- Love less, worry more.
- Live this way for a while. A very long while. Too long, actually.
- Catch a glimpse of yourself in someone else. Or maybe a mirror. Or maybe both.
- Realize you don't like what you see.
- Take a piece of pink paper and scribble a list on How To Be Sad.
- Stop doing those things.
- Keep the list in your pocket or bag for months.
- Refer to it often.
- Then not so much.
- Tuck the paper away in a drawer.
- Forget about it for years.
- Find it when doing spring cleaning.
- Smooth the wrinkled edges.
- Remember your sadness, but from a different perspective.
- Honor that time in your life.
- Rip the paper into tiny little pieces.
- Throw the list into the recycling bin.
- You know how to be sad.
- But you're figuring out how to be happy.
illustration: Zakhar Krylov
Thrift/sadness
This post is part of a Blogging A To Z series where I write a new, personal story almost every day (except Sundays). The theme is the hidden messages: the language of flowers.
