What Does Heartbreak Look like? — Generations of Heartbreaks
When my mom told me that other kids do better, my heart broke a little. On the day I grew up enough, I asked her, “how would you feel if I told you that other moms are better?”, her heart broke a little. (for your reference, this is a common experience among Asian kids). When COVID hit, our hearts all broke a little.
Generation of heartbreaks
Times like this make me realize that we are all generations of heartbreak. How can it not when the whole world has been shut down, and we are all separate?
Ambulances everywhere? Grandparents cannot see their newborn grandbabies? Son cannot attend his father’s funeral? Canceled weddings, forgotten the first day at school, no strolling in the parks on beautiful sunny days? How can our hearts not break with everything that’s going on?
Not to mention the social media and online news that cranked everything up just a few more notches?
I asked my mother-in-law if she remembered the moon landing, and she said, “yeah, we watched it.” That’s it. Things were not as hyped or as big of a deal. You go on with your days in your town and maybe watch TV when something “big” happens. As simple as that.
Can you imagine if the moon landing happened today — how much you would hear about it and how much content you would read about how good/bad/inspiring/shady/wrong/amazing it is? Just look how excited people are over an Apple new product event?
These days, you can hardly go through the day without hearing about something terrible happening somewhere in the world.
So yeah, times are tough, things are NOT normal, and our hearts are breaking just a little bit more.
Living with heartbreaks
Heartbreaks are something we cannot see. Sometimes it looks like teary eyes. Sometimes it looks like a grumpy old man shouting at kids running across his yard. Sometimes it looks like a tired lady at the supermarket. Heartbreaks look like you and me.
Heartbreaks have no particular shape and form, yet, we live with them every single minute of our day. But that is not the only thing we live with.
We also live with amazing hot chocolate with marshmallows. We live with your partner’s smile. We live with your family on good days. We live with other heartbroken people that we get to share our precious little moments. We live with hope that things can be better — and our hearts will feel better.
Tylenol for heartbreaks
So I think that’s the key, “the hope”. Close your eyes and think of some good moments. Those kinds of moments shower you with warmness like a hot chocolate with a heavy blankie on romcom night.
Now open your eyes and ALWAYs remember that those moments are waiting for you. Keep them close to your heart and believe that someday, they will happen again. They are gonna be even better because now you know how precious those moments are. Each time, you will learn how to seize them a little better.
And if you can’t think of any heart-warming memory, that’s not bad news! That just means you have SO MANY extraordinary times waiting for you. Because I can promise you, life is not just about struggles and challenges; life also gives you the good stuff — maybe they’re just not yet arrived (or perhaps you are not ready to see them).
If you believe in that hot-chocolate-with-a-heavy-blankie-on-romcom-night feelings, then heartbreaks have their Tylenol. Heartbreaks will not feel as fresh. Bad days will not be as miserable. It’s like your heart is coated with protective layers, and you know you will be okay — as long as you are hopeful.
From heartbroken person to another
We all have our stories. I’d always say that if you zoom in to anyone’s life, you can make a movie out of it. So I’m writing this blog to tell you that you are not alone. The world is harsh right now, and things are really not normal. It might never go back to the way it was, but it will be better.
The thing is, no matter what’s going on on this planet, we all have our fair shares of heartbreaks, and that’s okay. The key is to always remember that the future is unknown, so the hot-chocolate-with-a-heavy-blankie-on-romcom-night feelings can pop up at any time, and that’s worth waiting for.
Stay hopeful❤️
