The Many Masks

The 5th of March, 2026

Modern society requires that you wear many masks. Your work self, your home self, your self when you’re out with your friends.

I find that I’m often wearing many masks for different people in different situations in my life. The constant hiding behind masks is exhausting, honestly, and out of this has come a desire to display more of my true self. This is one of the foundational elements of why I bother with running a website, funnily enough.

In some social situations, it’s difficult to show the reality of yourself. It’s easy to find yourself talking to people who dominate the flow of conversation entirely; sometimes people are inconsiderate and won’t give you space. You could find it easier to just give a nod of approval and a “uh-huh” instead of devolving the conversation into a needless argument. Things such as this leave me frustrated at the end of social situations; I end up feeling like I wasn’t able to fully express myself.

Of course, we exist in the minds of others only as versions of ourselves that we have shown them, and as a result of this, sometimes I feel like my true self may be obscured from those around me. The flow of spoken speech is fast, simply writing out an email or a long text is more conducive to a good conversation. Something as simple as having a personal creative outlet can be a good solution for combating this; you’re looking at mine now, after all!

One of my greatest faults is that I often find myself leaving the important information out. I end up not projecting the full nature of things in my thoughts. I’m working to change this. I’ve been making small steps on this journey, but I did finally come out to my real-life friends as nonbinary recently. I’d rather not have the truth of myself linger in assumptions and conjecture. I need to learn to more directly say my feelings on things. It’s harrowing to imagine that one day when life has passed me by, people will remember me as something I really never was.

My advice to you, and my advice to myself, is to drop some of these barriers. Stop wearing the masks that imprison you so often in conversation. We live in a paranoia age; someone is always watching or filming, and I understand how this may influence your actions. It’s easy to bottle up, be safe, and never really be yourself. However, this comfort has to be sacrificed to some degree on occasion in interest of presenting yourself accurately. I’m going to make strides to do this myself. To show a more complete visage of myself to the world around me.