Everyday Superheroes

By Angela Clark | VOX Staff

Art by Angela Clark | VOX Staff

I am a melting pot of emotions with constant mood swings that sometimes confuse those around me. At any moment, I could be the happiest person around, laughing goofily with friends and loving life, then some small insignificant thought or statement triggers sadness and turns me into a miserable little bunny that’s lost its tasty carrot. Soon, I begin to berate myself for being so distressed over something so petty, and that leads to anger. Like the Incredible Hulk, I can easily get stressed out to the point where I explode and take my frustration out on everyone around me.

If my emotions did not get the best of me, perhaps the people around me would not suffer as much. Instead of being a two-liter bottle full of angst, energy, envy, sadness and joy, ready to explode at any second, what if I could close the lid on all emotions but one at a time? So, I decided to conduct an experiment to find out what it would be like to only have one emotion.

It took me a while to figure out just how many emotions to focus on. I made a list, and since it seemed like some emotions are very similar, I decided to narrow my list to the three most common feelings people experience: happiness, sadness and anger. For three days, I focused on one of these three emotions per day.

Put On a Smile
Day one was my happy day. It started off great, with me smiling for no reason and surprising my mom and sister with a positive attitude. Instead of annoying my mom by bickering about who’s going to get shotgun on the way to the mall, I let my younger sister sit in the front seat of the car, while I smiled happily as I headed to the back.

Later that day, I hung out with my friends, whose animated, hilarious behavior made it easy to smile. Reasons to laugh constantly came up as we walked around the mall and talked about random things. It seemed I didn’t have a care in the world while I was around my friends.

After a while though, it wasn’t as easy to keep a smile on my face. My happy day was another one of those days when my boyfriend was being punished. He called to tell me about this while I was out with my mother and sister. On a normal day, it would be so easy to let one of my best friend’s issues stress me out. I would have gotten upset and started worrying, trying to come up with a way I could help, but for the sake of the experiment, I remembered to smile and keep a positive attitude. I didn’t let out an angry grunt of frustration, though at times I wanted to. It was challenging to hold in those emerging emotions.

Emotions can sometimes be faked to hide things from another person. Some people fake smiles to get what they want. During my experiment, I was that ambiguous person who pretended to have only one emotion per day, even if it meant I had to hold back my real feelings. I laughed when I wanted to cry; I smiled when I wanted to complain. I felt bad faking these smiles when I truly was feeling something different. Pretending, after all, is nothing but a buttered-up form of lying.

Give Me Your Sympathy
Day two was my day of sadness. It was harder because I had to make up random reasons to be sad, which wasn’t really working. I wanted to be happy because I had no real reasons to be distressed. All day, I came up with dumb reasons to frown, attempting to make myself sad. After a while, I was able to fake my emotions so fiercely that they actually became real. I kept thinking about what life would be like without the people close to me — especially my boyfriend. What would it be like if he were really forced to never see me again?, I thought. Eventually, I thought my depression into existence. The emotions I made up in my mind seemed to feel so real that I didn’t even realize I was conducting an experiment anymore. The thoughts I put in my brain led me to believe that was the real deal.

When I told my best friend about my depressing thoughts, she was quick to console me and try to make me laugh. I knew what she was doing would normally make me feel better, but I tried hard to stick to my one emotion and it actually made me so upset that I couldn’t let her sympathy improve my mood.

On this day, I realized that some people tend to enjoy being pitied. They make up reasons to be upset and end up getting attention from those who are supposed to care about them. It could be detrimental, however, when people tell, or force, themselves to be unhappy. I learned from my experiment that it is very possible to believe something so strongly that it will actually come true. I think if anything should be thought into existence, it should be bliss and delight. People could succeed much more in life if they just believed good things would happen to them. When people feel down, or turn against themselves, it isn’t very likely that they will do very well.

Anger and Ruin
On the third day, I tried to be mad all day, which was not hard at all since anger is the easiest emotion for me to express. I guess I’m just a big critic who finds things wrong around every corner. It doesn’t take long for my annoyance to turn into bitter complaints and angry sighs of impatience.

Though I am usually an angry person, that day, I had no paticular reason to be mad. So, I aggravated my friends by complaining about such insignificant things as the cold weather and waking up early.
At home, it was no better. After a long day, I saw a pile of dishes in the sink and exclaimed, “These slobs can’t even do their own freaking dishes!” I slammed down the dishes and stormed out of the kitchen. I picked a fight with my family and made an unnecessary scene for no valid reason.

Some people around me suffered because they, for some strange reason, attempted to console me, even though I was inconsolable. My best friends continued to ask what was wrong and tried to cheer me up, when they knew their attempts would be in vain. This showed me who my true friends were: the ones who stuck it out despite my pointless mood swings, while others got annoyed and merely replied, “Whatever, Angie.”

This day taught me that sometimes I actually so exaggerate and fake my feelings, not just for the experiment. I take a minor irritation and blow it out of proportion, which is not fair for the people around me, nor is it a positive solution. These small annoyances are not worth the fights and arguments that sprout from my overreactions.

We’re All Heroes
This experiment helped me realize that it’s unhealthy to hold back our real emotions. A world with merely one emotion would be detrimental to everyone. People would keep their true emotions in and would not be able to express their honest feelings. If people kept their emotions bottled up, rather than trusting and confiding in a friend, their emotions would have an explosive result.

Instead of limiting ourselves to one emotion, we should express them in a mature and controlled manner. I now think that being able to express countless emotions is a real super power. With the ability to smile when you’re ecstatic and cry when you’re upset, you can build a strong relationships with people, learn to trust them and become your own superhero, free to yell, laugh and cry whenever we feel we need to.