“I’m Okay, and you?”

It's the simple standard answer, but it took me some time to be able to say this. Typical answers like 'okay', 'fine' didn't belong to me. Most times, I'd be far from okay, I'd be a 'no' or a 'terrible'. Defining myself was like trying to untangle my favorite pair of earphones. The more I used them, the more often it'd get tangled. The songs I listened to with these earphones spouted nonsense like 'it's okay not to be okay'. Lies. It's never okay to not be okay. You should never be fine with the feelings that steal precious moments of your life, that leave you wrecked and disfigured. Get help, whether it's from friends, family, art, books, or even the internet. The dark times of my life were spent with me isolating the world and trying to solve everything by myself. But it doesn't work that way. The only reason I can say I'm doing fine now and start paying attention to the others around me is because someone was there asking me if I was okay. So thank you. I'm doing okay now. How about you? Are you okay?