Things That Make People Sad

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Time makes people sad. The slow and steady dissolve of people, places and things. Your life is divided into chapters whether you like it or not. You can’t turn the page back and you can’t rewrite anything. Do you want to go back to a time when you walked home from your night class at ten p.m. and came home to a house full of your roommates playing some drinking game? You hated it then but you hated it more when everyone moved out and there was nothing left to come home to but static on the television. Do you want to crawl back into that boy’s bed who lived in the Lower East Side? You spent four months of your life sleeping in late, spooning, and doing drugs on a coffee table and it was so…romantic. And then time stopped it, stopped all of it. New chapter. Turn the fucking page please.

Whenever your parents say they’re disappointed in you, you can’t help but get sad. They’re awful, the absolute worst, but they can’t think you’re the absolute worst. Wait, Mom. Wait, Dad. I’m not turning into an awful person. I’m still good. I’m not rotten. Please think of me as that five year old who would give you kisses in public. I can still be that child for you! Wait, you’re over it? Cool, don’t talk to me.

Getting rejected makes people sad. We want to be validated, we want to be viewed as attractive so we give complete power to some nobody in a bar. “Here’s my self-esteem! Do what you want with it, I guess. Just please don’t shatter it! Oh, you just shattered it. Darn!” It’s not fair that someone we don’t even know has the power to make us feel like crap. The only people who are allowed to do that are best friends, significant others, and intermediate family members.

Listening to certain songs makes us sad. And when we’re depressed, we put on a playlist that’s titled “Kill me!” so we can feel more depressed? Funny system we got going there. We listen to songs that remind us of certain people and maybe we cry. A song by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers could be really uplifting and fun, but it reminds of a fun and uplifting day we can never get back again. So there we are. Crying to rock and roll. Music is so damn powerful.

Getting flaked on by your friends is so sad. You have this excitement building about your fun-filled social day and then it gets ripped away from you by a single text that says, “I’m sorry. Don’t h8 me. Gonna have to reschedule!” And as you’re choking back tears you write back, “No prob babe!”

Drinking makes some people sad. They have a bad day so they drink to feel better. Smash cut: All of their horrible feelings being amplified times ten and causing them to cry into their drink. Oh my god, you’ve become a cliche sad drunk. Oh my god, you’re an adult?

Writing a piece about what makes people sad can make you feel sad. So don’t do it.

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image – Ron Bennetts