Creative Interpretation | The Emotion -“Jealousy”

Smiles that aren't real make the heart pump fast.

How can my junior marry before I do? This is usually the mind combat among girls. It's actually a normal phenomenon to see your friend marry someone rich while you're still single, waiting for someone to seek your hand in marriage. This was the case with a young girl who's in her 20s. A wealthy man proposed to her, and she accepted the proposal at a young age, though maturely.

Her friend, who was quite older and more mature than her, felt happy on the outside but was jealous on the inside. To her, she was like, 'Am I a spoon? 'Why didn't a man propose to me first? Am I forgotten at this age? And it happened the wedding came, and she was the chief bridesmaid. This made her even more jealous, and she wished it was her standing close to that man.

She was just distancing herself from the bride, who's her friend, that day and acting like everything was okay. Her jealousy made her agree with people that her friend isn't fit to marry and that the marriage will crash in a month's time. Meanwhile, her friend, the bride, was busy thinking all those smiles were real.

It's actually a widespread belief that jealousy is attributed to having finances and living a good life while another person doesn't have them. The person wants to be like you and is happy for you on the outside, but inside, that jealousy is deep, the emotion mixed with hatred, denial, envy and negativities.

But jealousy, from my perspective, is not the negative desire to assume you had what the other person had, but the feeling of being forgotten. At this age, you're not married, but most of your juniors are seeing suitors. The jealousy isn't about getting their man, but about the fact that they married much earlier and you're left like an unwanted piece with no suitors even asking you out for a date.

So I see it as the fear of being forgotten when others are remembered and you are still desolate. That fear of still ageing and still being patient to conduct marriage the right way prompts jealousy when you see others being graceful. That's how I picture this type of jealousy.

What triggers this emotion in my piece are two things: The fact that this person is your closest friend and you've had good times together, are seen together and do things together, but of the two of you, a young handsome man decided to choose someone that's young like a child, someone who just passed adulthood with 2 years instead of you, but both of you are beautiful, and you're even more mature and due for marriage.

That triggers the emotions. If the person wasn't her friend, she wouldn't have felt it that much. And the height was when the bride decided to make her best friend, who's not married, her chief bridesmaid to carry her gown and arrange for her to be comfortable in front of her husband.

Nearly all bridesmaids are jealous even though it's positive or negative jealousy because they do feel the heat of sitting close to the couple and watching them kiss and feed themselves. But negative jealousy should be avoided, as positive jealousy doesn't harbour hatred.

My interpretation shows jealousy as destructive to oneself. When you're jealous, you feel the heat most; your health changes because you feel worthless and inferior. You begin to hate yourself and think of ways to make yourself better than others, which may breed negative attitudes like pride and disrespect.

One can be happy on the inside, but their heart is suffering a violent form of attack. One's mind is corrupted, and one begins to see things and think differently. So it's destructive to the person harbouring this improper jealousy.

I invite @mamun123456 @shahidalinaz and @okere-blessing