We all love compliments. Compliments brighten up our day. Whether it be the outfit we are wearing, the food that we’ve cooked, the work that we’ve done or the impression we have created, we all like to be appreciated for our gestures. I think it is important to hand out compliments and not be stingy when it comes to that.
But compliments and I share a nasty and complicated relationship. The other day, a friend said something really really nice to me. I loved that she said what she did, but as always I didn’t know how to respond. I start behaving weirdly, start blushing and I also start avoiding the conversation that would persist after the compliment was handed. I tend to smile and let it pass or let there be some awkward silence. People possibly misunderstand this as rudeness or ego. Whereas actually, it is shyness.
I love complimenting people. I do it so often in my head. I would always be thinking that oh this person dresses really well, or oh this person has beautiful eyes, or oh this person has worked so hard on this project or oh this person is such a good cook. But when it comes to actually telling people how I feel about a certain deed of theirs, I tend to shy away. I always express it in some way or the other though. If I like you, it is hard for me to tell you that because I always fear negative reception. So I’ll go out of my way to show my love and warmth towards you. If I see your picture, quite often I want to let you know that you look really good in whatever you’re wearing, but I won’t be able to. So I’ll just go ahead and ‘like’ your picture hoping that you understand.
A new trend that has overtaken Facebook is the “compliments/confessions” pages. Most school and universities have a compliments/confessions page. Being a shy person, I LOVE the idea. I think it is cool to let someone know that they are appreciated without the fear of negative reception. But since people consider themselves to be such geniuses and ‘troll-ers’, everybody started misusing such pages and started writing untrue confessions and non heartfelt compliments. It breaks my heart to see that my compliment to a girl was ignored by her because she thought that someone was misusing the forum again. I hate people who think they’re overly smart. I wish we could be allowed to punch these people hard in the face. There should probably be some sort of rule that allows every person one punch a day, or 10 punches a month or similar.
Now all of you that are reading this might consider me to be a coward, but so be it. The truth is that in today’s day and age, if a boy likes something about a girl, he is always afraid of saying it openly for the fear of misinterpretation. I know that this trait of mine isn’t a good thing and I’ve been working towards changing myself. For the last month, I’ve been trying to be bold and have been handing out one compliment to a person every day. That person could be a best friend or a random stranger that I meet on the streets. I’ve also decided to speak out problems. I used to forgive and forget and move on in case of a situation or fight. But recently, I’ve started telling myself that time only worsens situations and it is much better to clear them when they happen to avoid unnecessary complications later.
Hopefully you guys don’t shy away from situations and compliments. And even if you do, pluck a leaf from my book, it is never ever too late! I’ve been contemplating over a lot of things today, but I’ll leave those for other days and other posts.
Also, I love all of you that do read these posts. It feels like someone else shares my life stories with me.
Zindagi Ka Safar 