Telling people to smile
This may be petty but I don't understand the mentality of someone who says to a total stranger "Smile!" knowing nothing about the unhappy looking person. Having depression off and on for many years I've gotten this a lot and I find it slightly offensive. Especially," Smile, its not that bad!" I would just figure that if I see someone who looks deeply troubled, chirping"Smile!" at them is not only inconsiderate, I might have a foot up my @$$ real quick.
There's a new young woman I work with who is very quiet and looks miserable every day. Who knows what she's going through? She may have just lost her mom. She might be getting abused. She may have a real demon to contend with. This didn't occur to my boss who came bubbling over and said loudly," Has anyone ever seen this girl smile?" He's one of those always getting on people's case about smiling. I'm sure she was uncomfortable as about seven pairs of eyes were suddenly on her.
She keeps on frowning, good for her. I have learned to keep my expression more uplifted than I want to all day so I won't have to deal with the intrusive "Smile, it's a nice day!" type of comments. I wish if I looked sad people would just figure I have something to be sad about and it's OK to be sad, and to look how I feel....I've never heard anyone else complain about this so maybe I'm alone on this one. ?