The masks we wore…
All of us, at every stage of life, wore masks. We wore worker masks, student masks, party rocker masks, extrovert masks, to name a few. The thinker behind the masks is the same person, but the actor is different. No one knows all about you, and you do not know all about anyone. Some are more consistent across the masks, some are far less. There is no single person who can claim to know me well enough, partly because either I never had as transparent a mask, or they couldn’t see through the mask. The masks are undoubtedly useful, and are woven into our behaviors. They start with conscious thinking, go on to become a habit, and eventually you wouldn’t recognize that they are a part of subconscious activities, that happen involuntarily. People are different in behavior to different people. Some may have consistent opinions about you, but most groups would differ. The masks were not enough so people also wear goggles. Most see what they want to see. What you want to see is a decision made involuntarily by the subconscious mind, which was trained by conscious activities of the past, just how they developed the masks. Optimists see the light in the darkness, pessimists see the darkness in the light. The masks are a necessity. You are expected to behave differently under different scenarios. The world makes you do so, and in the end, blames you for it. They said, fake it till you make it, and when you make it, they call it being “not you” and ask you to “be you” and maintain your individuality. They say, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken”, and then they expect everyone to follow the same norms. Everyone has their own set of requirements to which you adapt. The more people you be with, the more masks you develop, customized to each. In the process of adapting, you tend to lose parts of yourself. They expect you to accept them as they are, yet practice different from what they preach. Different things please different people, and you end up being different to please all these different people, and in the process, you lose yourself. There are different versions of you, deep within, there is one that you know is the “real you”, and then there is one primary mask that you let others see. The differences between these are the causes of internal conflicts. The more the difference, the more you fight yourself, and you are the only one in this fight since no one else sees this. You are free to portray yourself as best as you want to, and most of the times the world would take it as the truth. But be sure to constantly eliminate the differences, else the long term effects can be dreadful. The version you display is the one you try being your best at. Everyone tries to show their best, especially on the social media, and knowing this fact can be majorly helpful to get rid of depressions in the modern virtual world. Everytime you scroll, be conscious and analyze the behavior, see if there is anything better that you can be doing. See to it that it is merely for entertainment when you are bored, and not because you are trying to avoid something important, something effortful. Let it be a source of entertainment, not a distraction.

The masks we wear…
The Pandemic has taught all of us a different way of life. Life is not how we knew it, and it will continue to be so until a vaccine is widely available. People continue to wear masks, and a mask over masks. When the masks are scarce, they say wear masks only if you are sick. Now the masks are widely available, yet expensive, they make it a compulsion. From a minor issue like this to various conspiracies that nations make to accuse other nations, COVID has divided the world even more. The economies have crashed, the future is uncertain. Universities try to portray their believes in possibilities to prevent students from deferring, when they know there is one only possibility. How much ever they say uncertain the future is, deep down we all know some things with certainty. Anyway, switching to the optimist goggles, the pandemic also has positive impacts. Personally, I wouldn’t have learnt as much software as I have after the things went virtual. There was more time, and more flexibility in schedule. This isn’t necessarily a positive thing, unless you are disciplined enough to know the right thing to do. Social distancing has helped cut down the number of people we “really be” with. This has led to lesser number of new masks we needed to make. We have more freedom on choosing whom we interact with. Many have recognized the few important people in their lives and they know that is all they need. Unnecessary interactions, short talks, have come down. This has personally helped me spend more time about thinking on what I wish to think about, being how I really want to be like, being with people I really want to be with. Social distancing, though necessary, has been an excuse to avoid unnecessary relations. More time for self-discovery and learning, has certainly helped people analyze their lifestyles, and pro-active people have exploited it well to their benefits. The only way out in near future is to adapt to the new way of life, wear only one mask and finally BE YOU when you are given a chance to know. You have the power to find your WHYs, choose whom you wish to spend time with, what you wish to do, and how you wish to be. I plan to continue discovering more ways to exploit this, and focusing on self betterment. It is important to know yourself and work on yourself without comparing with others. You have all the answers you want. [#Lesson 2] Hope you all stay safe, happy quarantine.