Behind the mask//The Smile that hid a silent battle...

We live in a society where we often judge people's lives by what we see on the outside. The truth is, there are many people out there who wear fake smiles everyday, laugh always, and even help others in need, but yet they are carrying heavy burdens within themselves. And the amazing part of this truth is that, we often assume that because such people appear to be happy always, everything is fine with them. But the reality is that life doesn't always work that way. Sometimes the people who smile the most are the ones struggling the hardest without we knowing.

While I was reading through this prompt, I immediately remember an experience I had with one of my friend during my university days.

This particular friend of mine was one of the happiest people in our class. He smiled at almost everything, joked with everyone, and was always willing to help anyone who needed assistance. This is someone who is quick to making friends immediately at first conversation because of his lively nature and his adsense can be felt when he's not around. We who are friends with him never saw him complain about his problems or act like life was difficult for him and because of his cheerful attitude, all of us believed he was doing just fine.

At that time, I worked at the school's ICT café where I helped students process their documents, make school fee payments, and print different academic documents. Every semester, many of my friends and course mates would come to me for help with their semester registration and payment processes.

During one of the semester, I noticed something very unusual about this particular friend of mine. Almost all my friends that we are together came to me to process their registration for the semester, but this particular friend did not come. The semester was already getting close to examination period, so I decided to ask him. I met him one day and asked why he had not come to register the semester through me. I even asked if he had gone somewhere else instead. He simply smiled at me and replied that he had already made the payment and completed the registration by himself. Well, since he said that so confidently, I believed him and didn't think much about it.

Life continued as usual. We attended lectures together, worked on presentations, and participated in different school activities. However, as exams drew closer, I started noticing something strange about him. His attitude started becoming suspicious. He would often excuse himself to answer phone calls. Whenever he returned from those calls, he would smile as usual and join in conservation with us, but somehow the smile no longer looked genuine to me. I felt like he was trying hard to hide something from us. And if you ask him, if anything was wrong, he will say no, he's fine.

One day, I was coming back from the restroom when I accidentally overheard part of a phone conversation between him and someone. I didn't stay to listen to everything because I didn't want to invade his privacy, but from the little I heard and from his behaviour afterward, I began to suspect that he was having financial problems, probably related to his school fees.

Later, I secretly checked one of his notebooks where he had written his school portal login details. I know that wasn't the best thing to do and I was crossing a privacy boundary. But at that moment, I was honestly and genuinely worried about him. When I got the details and logged into his portal, I discovered that he had not paid his school fees at all, despite telling me he had completed everything himself.

I secretly called a few of our close friends and explained what I had discovered. We all agreed that instead of confronting him immediately, we would contribute money among ourselves to help him settle the fees. After raising the money, we completed his registration and processed all the necessary documents. A few days later, we gathered together as we normally did and surprised him by handing over all his processed semester documents.

He was completely shocked. Like the look on his face is something I will never forget.. The first question he asked was, How did you know I had issues with my fees, despite telling you I have paid and registered for the semester? That was when I explained how I became suspicious and eventually found out.

He then opened up to us for the first time and tell us what the problem was. He explained that his father had invested in a business that unfortunately failed, leaving the family in serious financial difficulty. Things became so hard that paying his school fees was no longer possible. Yet throughout that period, he chose to hid his problem and just keep smiling akways because he didn't want anyone to pity him or treat him differently.

That experience is something I would never forget. It actually taught me a lesson that we really don't know what some people are going through in life. A smiling face doesn't always mean a peaceful heart. Some people are fighting battles they never talk about, while still showing kindness and positivity to everyone around them.

Since then, I have tried as much as possible not to assume and conclude that someone is okay simply because they look happy. But instead, I try to check on people more often and pay attention when something seems different about them. Sometimes, all a person needs is someone who notices that their smile is hiding something deeper.

One thing I will like to say is that the people we often ignore are not always people we don't know like strangers. Sometimes they are our friends, colleagues, neighbours, or even our family members like our parents. Sometimes our parents can be going through a lot but because they wouldn't want us the children to feel disturb, they hid their problems. A little concern towards them can make a bigger difference than we realize. Thank you and God bless...