How are you?

 

Such a simple day to day question, which I almost everyday answered with ‘fine’ or ‘good’. Then when I heard quite a few different responses to this question, namely “trying to do better”, so I started thinking about what it really meant and how really to answer it. 

The way our social interactions go, if you respond with ‘fine’ or ‘good’, its a generic response and everyone moves on. Like great, nothing particularly wrong with you, you’re alive! So next topic.

But if you respond with anything else…you get asked another question - “why?”. Like buddy, it is what it is, stop questioning it. I don’t have to be ok all the time, and that’s ok. 

Furthermore, to really answer this question we should actually be giving at minimum an overview of our life to the person who asked this question. Why? Well because good and bad are relative terms. 

So how am I? Compared to how bad life could be, I’m flipping fantastic. I haven’t been dangling over the Grand Canyon for the past 12 hours, nor have I lost an eye, only to get a replacement by a weapon carrying space raccoon, and everyone precious to me still knows I exist and I have a place to call home. 

But compared to how good life could be? I’m downright miserable. I can’t even see a meter away clearly, I have a splitting headache and I am up at midnight writing a blog because for some reason I can’t sleep tonight. That particularly sucks when you remember what a good sleep schedule you used to have, but now all your boring seniors in the bus seem so relatable for just sleeping as soon as they sat in their seat. Plus, I am already 16 and I’m not a member of the Avengers, or any band for that matter. 

So next time you ask me how I am, either be prepared to listen to the whole story, or tell my what I should compare my life with before answering your question. 

At the moment though, I am feeling Marvel-ous. 

(P.s. “trying to do better is a confusing answer since it won’t make sense to the listener if they didn’t know how you were doing. Personally recommend that you don’t use it with people who don’t know you well. Best with people who used to know you well, but are seeing you a long time)

(Also, all the people who didn’t understand my older anime references, you are welcome, this time they should be easier to get. If you don’t get even these, then you need to start maintaining a Steve Rogers style diary and catch up on the 21st century. )