Superman

"DON'T CRY! It doesn't solve anything." That is the kind of house I was raised in. Be a man, suck it up, and move on even if you are only 5. Now this isn't entirely a bad thing. You learn after awhile to be able to put things to the side and carry on. We were always taught to be like soldiers in combat. You have to always keep moving because once you stop that's when bad things happen, you know, like getting shot. I in particular seemed to embrace this ideology more than others. Swallow your emotions and don't show pain because you never know who else is relying on you to be strong in any given situation.

However, there is definitely a downside to this. When you continually try to act like superman eventually people start believing you are. If you never show emotion or anything else then they assume nothing is wrong and continually pile on or act is if nothing is the matter. I view it kind of like a house that looks really nice on the outside. You pull up in the driveway and everything looks great. You take a tour and everything seems to be in place. Then you get it inspected only to find out the pipes are leaking, wires are exposed and not up to code and the foundation is cracking. It only takes one of these things to go and it will lead to total catastrophe like a flood, fire, or collapse.

Now people who are like this do a number of things in order to keep from total collapse. Usually they aren't good things but more on the order of vices. I don't feel the need to list these as we all know what the usual ones are. The irony in doing this though is eventually even they lead to collapse they just delay the inevitable. They just aren't able to say what they feel, or act that they are anything but ok. It's like being on an edge that you aren't even sure God can pull you back from. It is a constant fight with oneself. Helping others with a smile while the foundation cracks and crumbles a little bit at a time.