"I will not cry. I am going to be brave."
This is something I often tell myself in order to stop myself from crying.
As a kid, I was physically not so strong. However, I was very enthusiastic and never refrained myself from joining the others in their match of kabaddi or other games. Whenever I would get hurt badly, I would cry. Needless to say that in the long run, I earned the reputation of being a 'cry-baby'. I hated it!
One day, I made a promise to myself that I would never cry again in front of anyone and I was quite successful in doing so. My parents have now seen me crying only once in many long years and the last time I cried in front of them was at my uncle's funeral - and crying on such an occasion is "socially acceptable".
Nowadays one often hears that it is the brave who cry as they are strong enough to let their emotions show. But how true is that?
My friend was crying because her boyfriend was leaving town and the entire time, she kept apologizing for the tears that were streaming down her face.
We have all been socially conditioned to believe that it is not good to cry. Men, especially, are always told that 'crying is for women'. Why is it so? Don't they have the freedom to release their emotional pain?
I admit that I am not very good around people when they are crying. Crying in front of people attracts a lot of unwanted attention. Most people are not really interested in comforting you. They are just curious to know why you are crying, which is why I prefer crying when I am all by myself. I don't like explaining myself to anyone when I am upset.
Crying makes me feel better. Once I have shed tears, I feel like I can just let the pain go and move on. Crying helps me vent out all my frustration and anger and holding back, just aggravates it. Therefore, I would just like to tell everyone that it is extremely normal to cry and whenever, they feel like, they should just cry away.
