The Smile You Were Never Taught
Growing up without being taught to smile leaves a lasting void. It’s not just about the mechanics of curving your lips or showing your teeth—it’s about never learning how to express happiness when the world around you only showed pain.
Imagine standing in front of a camera, feeling awkward and unsure. You’re desperate to look happy, but happiness feels foreign, a language you were never taught to speak.
The world taught you to survive pain and loss, but it never showed you how to embrace joy. You try to mimic what you’ve seen, forcing a smile that never feels quite right, like wearing someone else’s skin.
For many, the act of smiling in a photo is second nature. But for you, it’s a struggle. Confidence in photos? That’s a dream you’ve never known. You avoid being in front of the camera altogether, retreating to the safe space behind it.
You become the one who captures moments for others, preserving their happiness, while your own absence in the frame becomes a silent testimony to your struggle.
There’s pain in this avoidance, an unspoken sadness in not being able to express joy naturally. The fear of “not doing it properly” takes root, feeding the cycle of avoidance.
Smiling should be a reflection of inner joy, but when you’ve never been taught to find that joy, it feels impossible.
The love in a smile—what is that, really? For some, it’s effortless. For you, it’s a mystery, a lost treasure buried beneath years of heartache and sorrow. The camera becomes an enemy, a reminder of what you’ve never mastered: the ability to show the world you’re happy, even if just for a moment.
But maybe there’s hope. Maybe the journey to reclaim the smile starts with small steps—learning to find joy in the little things, embracing moments of peace, and reminding yourself that you’re worthy of being seen.
It’s not about perfection; it’s about presence. It’s about understanding that the love in a smile isn’t about how it looks—it’s about what it represents: the resilience to keep moving forward, even when life hasn’t made it easy.