Strong - adjective: having powerful means to resist attack, assault or aggression.
I rarely go a day without someone describing me as "strong". I have been hearing this a lot lately and the more I hear it the more I feel I need to speak out.
When someone is viewed as "strong" people tend to think they're superior, able to handle more than other people and can handle hard times easily. This frustrates me. I feel this is a misconception about "strong" people and tonight I'd like to confess the truth about being (perceived as) strong.
1. We Are Weak
Yes, there I said it. We are weak, it's true. We have weaknesses just as much as every other person on the planet. We look to others for strength to help carry us on. You may not see it, but we also go home at night and cry. We also have concerns and doubts and cannot do everything on our own. No one can.
2. We Face Fear
Just because you see a person you view as strong hold up in public doesn't mean they don't get alone and cower. I face fear daily. But, I do not show it to everyone because I cannot. When you're labeled as "strong" people look to you. You do not have a choice but to rise above and show everyone else it's going to be okay. The only difference in a "strong" person and a "non-strong person" (whatever that means) is we have people looking to us to show them what to do. When we fail, we don't just fail ourselves but everyone else around us. We just aren't allowed to let our fears win.
3. We Need To Be Comforted Too
Just as people look to strong people for comfort we also need to be comforted. We can't be strong all the time. It means the world to a strong person when they find a person that allows them to be weak. We need encouragement and comfort as much as everyone else.
4. We're Survivors
A lot of times when I hear, "I don't know how you deal with what you do." or "You're so strong to hold up how you do." I always think, "I don't either, but if I didn't do what I did I wouldn't survive. If you were forced into my situations you'd be surprised how strong you were too." We simply are surviving in bad situations.
5. We Face With The Same Problems As Everyone Else
We're faced with the same fears, worries pains and everything else everyone else in the world is faced with. We simply choose to take the paths we do. Just as we all have to choose everything we do, we just make a choice to be "brave".
6. We Don't Know Why We're Strong
Just as some us are wired to be compassionate and some of us are wired to be comical we're just wired to be strong. I do believe to a certain extent we can all choose to be strong. But to those of us who come out the womb that way, we just are wired to be like this.
7. We Are NOTHING To Be Jealous Of
If anything else, we are people you should be thankful you're not. To prove strength you must overcome bad situations. (I am using the term bad loosely.) But strength comes a lot of times out of trials pain and heart ache.
8. We Need Breaks
Please understand we can't always be on. Because we're human and plagued with the same problems as everyone else we can't always provide the help or strength you need. We don't mind helping as much as we can but don't be mad when we can't produce the strength you need. We also need rest and to restore ourselves.
I'm sure there are more confessions other "strong people" feel so please comment them below if you have anything to add.
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