What do you say when you’re sad or have something on your mind and people ask you ‘Are you OK?‘ ?
This is the question Kel posted on Teahouse* this week. And most of the answers were along the lines of ‘I don’t say anything’ or ‘I say I’m fine‘.
So I sat at my desk and thought about it. What do I tend to do? And here’s my answer.
Until 2003, I followed the French custom of saying:
– ‘Ca va?’
– ‘Ca va.’
Which can be translated as:
– ‘You Ok?’
– ‘Yeah, I’m OK.’
And I’d say I’m OK even when I clearly was not OK at all. This got me into a bit of trouble when people discovered I was sick. I was either told that I was lying (because I’d always replied I’m OK, so I surely must be OK), or I’d get a serious ticking off for not trusting them, not sharing my problems, being a stranger to friends, bla bla bla.
But they were right. I owed them the truth.
And when they asked how I was, they truly wanted to know how I was doing.
So now when someone asks me how I am, I try to be honest. It’s not attention seeking at all. It’s simply living by the truth. I don’t go into detail every time though! lol Of course not. But I assume that if someone asks, then they want to know. And if they don’t like my answer, then they don’t have to ask again. As simple as that. 😛
Tell me, what do you say when you’re not feeling great and someone asks you how you’re doing?