“Keep a stiff upper lip,” people like to say, or, “Make them wonder how you’re still smiling.” No matter what life does to you, you should get back up on your feet and face it all. Don’t you know that if you react properly under intense pressure, you might just turn into a diamond?
On one hand we are told that life is short and we should not spend it being miserable, that anyone or anything that makes us unhappy should be cut out of our lives. On the other, we hear about how our greatest strength is enduring hardship.
I don’t buy into this idea that putting up with stress and tragedy, letting it affect you as little as possible, is somehow superior. Some people do praise the courage that is required for vulnerability, and others say that “only the gentle are ever truly strong,” but none of these express the real value of sensitivity.
I used to think I was not a sensitive person, which was odd considering the emo journals I have from this time period (and all of my life), but the day a ouija board made me cry was the day I gave up that delusion.
I’ve wondered many times how other people manage what would be unbearable for me, but I also wonder if they have given up on happiness. The greatest advantage to sensitivity, I have found, is that it drives you to improve your life. I can’t handle what many people accept, and the result is that I’m forced to stand up for myself even though I naturally hate to.
When you feel deeply, you reach the limit of emotional pain that you can put up with sooner than others, and so you react sooner. When you experience your feelings viscerally, you can’t ignore them. When you can’t function until you’ve worked through your emotions—you work through them. It’s impossible for a highly sensitive person to accept a lifetime of stress and unhappiness, because these feelings will always be at the forefront of their consciousness. And this is why sensitivity is a strength: it is the force that propels you to improve your life when many people would simply stand still.
You may suffer more, but you will also be more responsive to joy. If a part of your body loses the ability to feel it will not be considered stronger than your other limbs but much weaker. After all, your body should know when to move away from a source of pain. And this is what sensitivity is. It protects us by pushing us away from what hurts us because it is harder to stay than to leave. The downside to this is that sometimes, if you’re like me, you may end up hiding in the bathroom when you’re uncomfortable (or under a desk), but that’s only temporary until you create a place for yourself that you don’t need to run away from.
What is sensitivity, really, except the expectation that we should be treated well? Hurtful actions are only those we do not accept as normal. And the belief that we deserve a good life, with people who love us well, is not a shortcoming. It is the very least we need to pursue our dreams, and we should not be apologizing for it.
Half-Blood Kuwaiti 