House Rules

There are times when Jacob's world makes a lot of sense to me than the one rest of us live in. Why do people ask people how they are doing when we don't give a crap about the answer? Is Mr. Jennison asking me that question because he's worried about me, or because it's something to say to fill up the air between us?

"I'm okay," I say, because old habits die hard. If I were like Jacob, I would have answered directly: I can't sleep at night. And sometimes, when I run too fast, I can't breathe. But in reality, someone who asks you how you're doing doesn't want to hear the truth. He wants the pat answer, the expected response, so that he can go on his merry way.

It is from House Rules, written by my favourite author, Jodi Picoult.

The passage makes so much sense to me since it directly explains why do I always automatically give the same answer to questions like "How are you doing?" or "How are you?". Like a well rehearsed phrase that I use over and over again, I'll say "I'm fine" or "I'm good" and at times, "I'm cool" without meaning it since like what Jodi Picoult mentioned above,"in reality, someone who asks you how you're doing doesn't want to hear the truth. He wants the pat answer, the expected response, so that he can go on his merry way."

Another, I like to sound optimistic despite of how bleak things can be..

After all, how far will self sympathy will lead me to anyway..

And like what Dr Priya says, "Who says life is fair? Nobody says so."

Or what a friend used to tell me "Life's a piece of shit, deal with it."

The "How are you" cliche, is something if you're a stranger to that person whom you wanna check out acts as a way to initiate conversation thinking that, the conversation will revolve around that question. But, since the phrase is overused, one may begin to wonder if that someone is just being nice and probably wanting to appear to be friendly and later go straight to the whole point of wanting to check on the person.

That is something, that I don't bother to do, but I've been the ultimate prey to answering the how are you's question and putting up with the speechlessness after answering the question and as a result, ending the conversation(I can't even call them a conversation to begin with!). I'll ask you how's everything instead of how are you since I DO REALLY wanna know how are things for you and I don't go around asking anyone that question.

But honestly, why bother asking someone such question when your intentions are not sincere anyway? You might as well ask the wall the exact question cause it makes no difference if the only answer you can get is "I'm fine", "I'm good" or "I'm alright". Then again, to me, it's a half hearted question so the answer provided explains everything.

Funny, I just gave the exact answer to some dude online. Yeah, SOME DUDE. Which means some stranger.

It's so much better to listen to a good friend of yours asking you "How's life?" instead of that stupid "How are you?" cliche.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult is a super duper good read. After all, I've been wanting to read that book since it got released a month or two ago! If you have an interest in court case, extreme cases, or an unpredictable ending to a story, Jodi Picoult books suits you best

I know I suck as an advertiser, but she deserves the credit for the books that she wrote.