Trust can never be given, it is earned. Likewise, face can never be saved, it can only be “washed”. In reality, in order to appear respectable, graceful, and superior, most people strain them too hard to fake a “can” from “cannot”, to force a smile from a crying heart, and to cast themselves high in the air with no base. However, one day, faked “cans” would wear off. Forced smiles would die away and manned “high” would fall. Such respect, grace, or superiority endures no time.

Unfortunately, admit it or not, the “Saving Face Complex” has deeply rooted both individually and socially in our mind. Considerations about social status, step-backs in being afraid of making mistakes and hesitations about giving true ideas will suffice for illustration. One year’s post-graduate life has brought me hundreds of live stories where college or university graduates ended up in job hunting dilemma. Of course, I’m no exception. On the one hand, we inject too much anticipation in our job: high salaries, less work, and most importantly “being face-ful”. On the other hand, we are too shabby in our “ability account”. To get our face saved, we get ourselves “locked up”. Still, mistake, as part of who we are, has long been deemed as a face-killer. Thousands of innovations must have been stifled in minds, at the cost of which, we smugly crown ourselves “face-savers”. Another case in point might be a “yes-now-but-no-later” promise. To live up to peers’ expectations, or to be exact, to please people around, most people would unwillingly put on a willing mask and promise something beyond their reach.

Probably, we have long been taking the opposite direction. It is us who should be “saved” and as long as we stay “alive”, we have plenty of opportunities to actually erase “n-o-t” from “cannot”. For a heartfelt smiling, we earn a lifetime to fight for. As for the “high”, our efforts would one day pile up, providing us a true stage where we get nothing to worry about.