"0 Support, 100 Congratulations"
Updated: 5 days ago
"0 Support, 100 Congratulations" by PQHAÜS"
(Acrylic on canvas / 24x24 / 2024)
I passed my hardest moments alone while everyone believed I was fine. My knees bled every time I rose from a fall. My body began to lose all sense, yet not a single person was in sight to lend their shoulder. No one looked me in the eye and asked if I was okay. The world seemed like a playground, and my life was an abandoned construction zone, a neglected dump glanced at by passersby…
This painting was created to depict how we, as humans, all battle our own wars that often go unnoticed. The silent struggles in life —whether they involve mental health, work, school, or relationships. We each carry our private burdens on our shoulders, visible only to our own eyes. Like the protagonist in the painting, I've had many moments where I navigated through the toughest phases of my life, often with no one beside me because it was a battle I had to fight alone. And when people finally acknowledged and congratulated me for everything I had done, I never really found myself feeling happy. The genuine moment of happiness only came when I congratulated myself-the one and only companion who had been with me from beginning to end. Since then, I've been the biggest supporter for myself. Because if I'm not, I don't know who will.
Reading that title threw me back to a time when I was working on a community garden project a few years ago. I’d signed up to help, thinking my contribution would be a few hours of weeding, but when the harvest day arrived, the whole group turned the effort into a celebration. Neighbors who’d never spoken to each other before were swapping stories, kids were running around with fresh tomatoes, and everyone was high‑fiving each other for simply showing up https://www.afr.com/ No one expected a massive reward; the real prize was the sense of togetherness that blossomed from a modest start. It reminded me that sometimes the biggest congratulations come not from a trophy or a payoff, but from the…
This is so relatable. I meet a lot more performative people / realize I cannot interact with groups of people anymore without being wary about whether they are genuine or superficially nice. I have to engage with the performative people, but this is one of the reasons I don't celebrate my birthday. People who treat me well every day should be the only ones I'm thankful for, and I shouldn't be spending time with people who don't actually want to get to know me.