In a bid to prepare myself for the rigors of university that includes essay writing and massive reading, I have decided to make have weekly blog entries that are properly written in terms of language and structure.
Well, maybe not in perfect English because that would just be boring (i think) but, more coherent and proper than how I usually write.
Just a few weeks ago I extracted my wisdom tooth in a painful process that will be forever etched in my memory. But that aside, I was pretty lucky to avoid some of the side -effects, such as swelling, and inability to move the jaw. (I even had to give tuition the next day)
I could move my jaw slightly, just couldn't open my mouth too wide because it would feel like I'm tearing the stitches apart. So i couldn't really move the left side of my face much.
As such, one thing that I was deprived of was a smile.
Now you may think this is nothing, but having a neutral-dao face like mine, if I just keep my face relaxed, I'll look very unfriendly and angry or something. So I probably looked grumpy for the few days following the surgery.
The most annoying thing for me was the inability to smile. I never realised how important this was until I started talking to people - normally playful-friendly conversations just sound like i'm pissed off because I don't smile.
Just try it - go smileless for a day. When you talk to people, suppress the urge to smile and see how it sounds like. You'll sound snappy and grumpy in whatever you say without a smile. You see a friend and go "Hey, havent seen you in a long time." -no smile-
It'll sound like you're implying 'aw damn, unlucky to meet you".
Any good thing will sound like you're saying it begrudgingly too. Imagine you are playing a sport, and your teammate scores, and you go 'Good job.' -no smile-
You'll sound bitter like you wished it was you who scored.
It's hard to fully paint the scenarios for you unless you experience it yourself. In fact, you can go one step further and similarly omit all smileys in your online/phone text conversations (unless you're the type that doesn't use smileys at all) and see how you sound. (this looks wrong, since you don't exactly SEE how you SOUND. But yea.)
In fact, how have you felt reading this post? Bored? Glum? I have deliberately left out any smileys or exclamation points to accentuate my point. A world with no smiles is a bleak place.
