Putting on an act of happiness to the eyes of others and smiling through the pain is the mask that some people wear to cover up the deep feelings they have. Happiness is what appears to other people from the smile, laughs, and upbeat spirit, but deep down you know you are crying from inside and wanting to be heard. But, you just can’t express the sadness you feel, it's easier to cover it up and act like nothing is wrong. No one will ever know, and no one ever should have to. These are the thoughts running through your head. You don’t want to burden others with your problems, so you choose to wear the mask of happiness that hides the real way you truly feel.

The happiness you are faking, and the smile you wear around people will be enough evidence to many that you are content and pleased with your life. The surface is as far as most people see or dig for. Beyond that people either ignore anything more than that or are not interested in seeing beyond the surface. So you appear to most as a happy person with not many issues in your life. However, there are those select few who can see past the smile and read your eyes.

The eyes of a person tell their story, the smile doesn’t. These select people may be your loved ones, your friends, maybe even a stranger. There are just those people that cannot be fooled by appearance, they see people for who they are and what they are feeling. Most of the time it is because they are masters of the fake smile and know what it is like to be trapped beneath the act around others. Others just know something is off and can sense it. Either way, it is those people that matter and care for you the most. They see you for what you are when you don’t even want to see yourself in that way. These are the ones I like to call “keepers.” Keepers are the people in your life that stay through the sunshine and thunderstorms. And for the people with beautiful smiles covering up the deepest sadness, these are your people to let go with. The smile doesn’t have to stay with everyone, especially not the keepers. Appreciate these special people and open up. It is not good to keep it all inside, and it eats away at you. This is unhealthy and leads to immense pain and bigger smiles for the outside world to believe in, but for you to painfully go through.

Please know that it is okay to stop hiding from everyone. It’s okay to feel the way you truly feel. There is no shame in that and the people that truly love you will support you no matter what even on your darkest days. There is really nothing to be afraid of, the smiles and fake joy just make the frowns and feelings worse. Even though covering these things up feels good or maybe even right at the time, this is the worst thing you can do to cope with the way you feel. It stuffs your feeling down inside of you and only continues to do that, until one day there is no more room left. That’s the days that the smile goes away, the doors close, and the true sadness pours out without any control or end in sight. No one but the keepers know or see these days, the dark days but, I want you to know it's okay to have these days, it's okay to let your feelings out, and it's okay to cry. The one thing you need to know is this: stop the fake smile, stop the act of being happy when you are actually screaming inside, let the sadness out. Wear your true beautiful smile when you really feel happy, save it, reserve it for the times it is real. And know that it is okay to have hard times in life and cope the best you can, but also know it is never okay to use your beautiful smile at times when it isn’t true. Be beautiful when you feel it and allow yourself to feel it. You deserve to be happy, and not even deep, sad feelings can take that away from you. Remember that and live by it. Life isn’t always easy, but true smiling can be if you let it.