Posts Tagged ‘self-improvement’

The TV has been on almost nonstop lately.  Today, I caught the first episode of Desperate Housewives, which, apparently, is written by the same guy who wrote Golden Girls, which I’ve also come to love after watching a number of episodes.  (And who basically grew up next door to me in Fullerton, California.  Small world.)  Anyway, I… liked it, actually.  A lot.  I definitely saw parts of myself reflected in every one of the lead characters, so it was really easy to identify with them and get sucked into the story and truly care about what was going on with the characters.

And I did like one of the main messages in the episode: that, no matter how perfect a person’s life may seem on the outside, there’s always some kind of struggle, some kind of secret, and some kind of pain that they’re not showing to the outside world.  That’s very much how I feel a lot of the time—I know a number of people on campus, and interactions always seem to be frustratingly shallow.  “How are you?” “Oh, good.  Lots of work and stress.” “Yeah, me too.  Okay, I gotta run to class now; bye!” “Yeah, see you!”  Apparently, the greeting “Hey, how are you?” is meant to be replied to with only “Good; how are you?”  I learned that the hard way when I once replied with, “Not that great; I’ve got lots of things stressing me out—” only to hear “Whoa, I didn’t actually ask for all that; I’m just saying hi.”

“People’s personalities, like buildings, have various façades, some pleasant to view, some not.”

—François de La Rouchefoucauld

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