What is pain?

A rhetorical question! Pain is something that cannot be described in common, simple words, pain is much more. No matter how many pages, words a person writes, pain won’t and can’t be described. It is shocking really how a four letter word can hold such a deep meaning. It is the strongest emotion one can feel.

Pain can be anything, from a toddler getting a “boo boo” to a teenager getting betrayed by his/her “friends” to an adult getting hurt by their significant other or when a beautiful girl who is beautiful but broken from the inside comes home crying wishing that they would just stop bullying her, the scars on her wrists make the pain so visible, or when the child sits in the bathroom with the door locked, covering her ears as she tries to block out the constant shouting that is going on in the other room, her tears show the pain, her dark circles show the pain, she is beautiful but she has learned to keep quiet and not tell anybody anything, she has learned how to keep her emotions caged because her mother told her not to share her family issues with anybody, she is afraid but she covers it with a smile, and this shows the beauty behind the pain .it shows how pain can be disturbing but all one needs to do is start valuing themselves and make them their first priority.

Pain can be anything really. Unlike every other emotion pain has no positive notion that can make you look at the pain from a different perspective, there is only pain.

The phrase “after every storm there is a rainbow” is something that can be related to pain.  For example when your mother comforts you after getting hurt or when she pulls you to her chest and comforts you or when the most important person in this world whispers just the right things in your ear after a panic attack; when the person sits in their room after a bad day and just listens to the music of their favourite band or artist, that one pure moment that makes them feel like there is good in the world and there is sunshine somewhere, It makes you feel hundred different emotions.

Sometimes I ask myself what kind of the pain is the worst, the physical or the mental, the fear that you won’t be accepted in the society or the pain that was caused because you injured yourself through an accident. At least you can cry when you are hurt physically, but when you are different from the rest when you don’t follow certain ‘rules’ and you have nobody to talk to it hurts the most. Sometimes it affects you so deeply, it is like the soft aching but burning pain, it’s when somebody stabs you repeatedly and asks you if you are fine, but you want to scream, scream on the top of your lungs ‘YOU ARE NOT FINE’. It’s hard; I know it is very hard to live in a place where people don’t take you seriously.

I am an Indian, who grew up in Thailand, currently I am living in India; as a teen I have observed the sociocultural differences. My thinking and the people living here, we have a huge contrast, some stuff that I consider normal is abnormal for them, and one main thing that really disturbs me here is the acceptance of a different sexual orientation. I am a bisexual, but considering I am an Indian I am afraid to ‘come out’ or tell everybody my sexual orientation, I am afraid that I won’t be taken seriously, or they will just brush it off as a ‘phase’. For me the only thing that matters is my parents support and I am confident that they will accept me for who I am.

If straight is normal why isn’t gay/bisexual normal? Love is still love; love doesn’t say that it has to happen between two genders it has to happen between spouses. Denying marriage to two individuals who love each other is to deny them a fundamental freedom.

You might be wondering by now how is my question related to the LGBT community? Well I have an answer for that, in 2007 more than 600,000 Asians committed suicide due to not being accepted in the society. Youth suicide keeps on increasing year by year, nobody cares about what they are going through, all the families care about is their image and reputation in the society, this causes mental pain. The teenage person goes through many things at that period of time. The fear of not being accepted and when their own parents tell them not to repeat ‘that word’ again, it feels like the whole world is against them. If same sex marriage is not legalized in their country, they assume that the easy way out is to quit, but no that is an easy way out but it is not the right way. Fight for your rights, people are slowly accepting it now days, if you see America has same sex marriage legalized in 55 states, Ireland said yes. But Asians don’t move past their culture, all that matters to them is what others think about them. It affects the child, the constant sting, reminding them that they will never have a happy or a content life. “The society” talks about making people happy and content, but by not accepting what the new generation has to bring they are not making them happy. They are inflicting them pain, and this entire ‘non acceptance’, can make any 13 or 16 year old go through anxiety and depression. Trust me that is not beautiful, nobody wants their kids to go through anxiety. It completely destroys them; it affects them mentally and seriously makes them question their existence.

The biggest issue that homophobic people have with same sex marriage is reproduction. They don’t realise that they are living in the 21^st century, there are so many options like adoption, artificial insemination etc., science has exceeded from the past 10 years. There are thousands of kids waiting to be adopted!

There is only one way a person can overcome the pain that they feel on a daily basis, that is if they don’t let the darkness swallow them, if they move towards the light and set a goal, it is not easy to block the darkness, it hovers and clings on like a best friend, but ending your life is the easy way out and the only thing it proves is that the person is weak, but if you fight hard, you will be known as a fighter and fighters survive always.

-TM xx