Aisha's day flew by in a blur of meetings and presentations. She was a marketing executive, and her job required her to be "on" all the time.
She had to look put-together, confident, and in control, even when she felt like she was barely holding it together. As she was wrapping up ameeting, her phone buzzed with a message from her best friend, Tayo. "Hey girl, what's up? You free to chat?" Aisha smiled, feeling a brief moment of relief. She quickly typed out a response, "Yeah, I'm free. What's going on?"
Tayo launched into a story about her latest drama with her boyfriend, and Aisha listened attentively, making supportive noises and asking the right questions. But inside, she was seething with envy.
Tayo had a real relationship, a real life, and Aisha was stuck in this never-ending cycle of pretending. She felt like she was living a lie, and the weight of it was crushing her. Aisha excused herself to grab a coffee, taking a moment to collect her thoughts. She couldn't keep up this charade forever.
As she sipped her coffee, Aisha's mind began to wander to her own love life, or lack thereof. She had a string of shallow relationships that she used to bolster her social media image, but nothing real. No one knew about her secret struggles, her deep-seated fears, and her doubts. She was trapped in a world of fake perfection, and she didn't know how to escape. Aisha took a deep breath, plastered a smile on her face, and headed back to her meeting, wondering how much longer she could keep up the act.