Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Sadness Journal | Page 14

ten plays a large role in recovery after traumatic events such as the death of a loved one. For instance, if
we allow ourselves to be sad we can often make personal discoveries about why we feel this sadness,
which leads to motivation to make changes to make ourselves happier throughout our lifetime. Sadness can
also aid to bringing people together who would normally not cooperate with each other, as shared sadness
can help bring to light shared values and beliefs instead of differences.
I have experienced both of these positive effects of sadness throughout my lifetime. My parents
divorced when I was five, and then took part in a three-year-long custody battle. To put it nicely, their
divorce was not civil. The hard feelings that persisted related to this divorce developed into genuine hatred
for one another, and it eventually became impossible for them to speak to each other without getting into
an argument and/or going back to court to fight the custody agreement. Later on during my high school
career, past events in my life that had caused me sadness began to resurface. Throughout my childhood I
had done my best to ignore and distract myself from these events that had caused me pain. However, be-
cause I had never allowed myself to truly feel the sadness that I was experiencing, the issues behind my
sadness were never resolved. As these events came back into my conscious memory, I slowly became una-
ble to think of anything other than these memories, and the sadness took over my ability to feel happy or
interested in the life I was living. The journey that led to my recovery from this sadness has taught me les-
sons that I will never be able to forget.
Since childhood I had been ingrained with the same messages surrounding sadness
as everyone else. For instance, it was bad to feel sad, and we should not
let it show. Instead, we should try to ‘cheer up’ or smile. These
messages caused me to think that the sadness I felt as a child was
wrong, and I did my best to distract myself from it. As a child,
this meant intense focus on schoolwork and my grades, being in-
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