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Growing up, I believed in simple things. I thought kindness was just kindness, and laughter was as honest as it sounded. It wasn’t until I grew older that I noticed the cracks in this worldview, like faint lines drawn around the faces of people I’d known forever. The reality slowly began to seep in: many of those smiles were polished for display, a lot of kind gestures were just hidden transactions, and words were sometimes just fillers, empty of meaning.
Even recently, I encountered a person getting appreciated and complimented for their work but the same people who complimented them were the ones who talked behind their back criticizing their work. Why can't they just talk to each other
Sometimes, I’d see people helping others, and my heart would lift, thinking there’s goodness in the world. But now, I find myself wondering if the help is genuine or just an opportunity to appear generous. The line between the two has become blurred. The way people take to social media to share every charitable act or moment of kindness can feel forced, more like proof than anything else, like they need the world to know how "good" they are. I wonder,if no one were watching, would the kindness still be there?
I remember reading Gabriel Okara’s Once Upon a Time, and one line stuck with me: “They laugh with their teeth, while their hearts remain cold.” It felt a bit harsh at first, but as I think about it, there’s truth in that description. There are so many smiles that don’t feel warm; they’re polite or expected, like something we wear because it’s what we’re supposed to do. But beneath those smiles, there’s often a distance.
There are days when I think back to my younger self, how she didn’t need validation to feel happy or prove her intentions. She found happiness in tiny things like a good song, her mom’s homemade cupcakes, or the way the sky looked at sunset. There was no performance, just a kind of honest, quiet joy. It feels like a treasure that I’m trying to reclaim, that I don’t want to lose to all these complex expectations and appearances.
In this world, sincerity can sometimes feel like a rare thing, like a little gem hidden beneath layers of polished manners and forced laughs. I hope I can still find ways to be that person who finds joy in the small things, who laughs fully, and helps without a second thought. Maybe that’s what it means to hold on to what’s real in a world that’s become so carefully rehearsed. Let us try to be genuine with everything and set an example for the real kindness.
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