Everyone is struggling
Everyone’s going through something. Everyone has their days.
Not knowing all about what someone is going through, doesn’t automatically mean they’re okay.
I’ve had (very close) friends, on multiple occasions, tell me stories of tough times they’d been through, years after they happened – while I was already around at the time, while we were in contact everyday, while I thought I knew all that was going on with them, up to the very tiny details. And yet it always turns out I have no clue, until they decide to reveal their stories later on when they’re ready. And that’s okay. No one’s obliged to let you in on every little thing they go through anyway. Yet that doesn’t mean they’re not going through something. It doesn’t mean nothing’s slowly killing them everyday. Knowing or not knowing about it will never change the fact that it hurts.
And it hurts even more when, besides what’s going on, they still have to carry themselves through the burden of the guilt, the assumptions and the blame. Because they just can’t get themselves to share.
So please remember, whether you know about it or you don’t: Everyone’s struggling. Even when they look they aren’t – especially when they look like they aren’t. That’s more often than not, when you need to be gentle the most.
