I like my tea sweet

“I like my tea sweet”, this simple combination of words left my mouth when I was sitting in a discussion with my friends. Apparently, it was the first time we have tried the tea from college canteen. To them, the sweetness was out of routine because they don’t drink their tea with much sugar. The taste, however to me, was quite normal. That moment, I found myself out of the conversation, it wasn’t about the tea at all.

I have had moments like these in my life where liking certain things felt out of the current story and it helped me understand the beauty of preferences. As humans, we all have different choices and sometimes they resonate greatly with those of other people. But sadly, many people don’t seem to understand the situation of having a certain way of doing things.

I have met understanding people, but I have also happened to get in conversation with people who lack this trait. I always had a hard time explaining how things work for me. They don’t work the same as many people. Now, I am not trying to act as a different entity from mars, what I have been trying to say is that I struggle with putting forward my ways, and for some reason I feel like most people feel the same. The moment I am being pointed out for my ways, my controls tend to shut down and my mind manipulates me to believe that what the next person is saying is the only way to do it and what I was pursuing was wrong all the time.

Now I can explain why that happens, a theory basically. It is because we are not confident in ourselves. It is because we are afraid to put forward our preferences for the fear of being judged or seen differently, or either we care too much of the standards than being us. What a waste of freedom of speech and free will.

I wish I could say proudly, “I like my tea sweet”.