I answered, “I’m fine,” because the real answer was too long

Dear Delyara, A friend asked how I was, and the truth was too layered to fit into a casual exchange. I wasn’t fine. I also wasn’t in crisis. I was tired, a little lonely, slightly hurt by something at work, worried about money in the back of my mind, and already emotionally preparing for tomorrow. There is no neat social answer for that. So I said, “I’m fine, just tired.” Which was true in the way skimmed milk is still technically milk. I hate how often adult life forces honesty to choose between being incomplete or becoming socially inconvenient. Some evenings I simply do not have the strength to make my real state legible to another person, especially when I know they asked kindly but briefly. So the smaller answer wins. And I carry the larger one alone a bit longer.