How are you really doing?

Today I reached out to a friend to catch up on life and we ended up talking on the phone for over two and a half hours. I had noticed that his social media looked…different. Something was going on, but I didn’t know what the details might be. I decided to see how he was really doing.

Have you ever had someone ask you how you’re doing and you either didn’t have the energy to get into the real story or maybe just thought they wouldn’t care to hear it? So you just say you’re fine and move on. But the real story is so much deeper, the emotions so much more real, and the emptiness so hard to bear. You might think no one cares, but you’d really be surprised how many people are just waiting for you to give the real answer to the question - they’re just too polite to push when you say you’re fine.

My friend opened up about a very heartbreaking story, a broken relationship, the shock of it all, and the questions about where to go from here. I shared some things going on in my own life to let him know that he’s not alone and that we’re all carrying something that’s hard to carry all alone. Our stories had some similarities, some very different details, and most importantly, some very relatable emotions. As much as I had reached out to this friend to make sure he was going ok, I feel like we both walked away from that conversation feeling lighter. Neither of us were carrying all the weight of our problems alone and that felt like it was exactly the point.

How are you doing? How are you really doing?