Human beings often express their feelings through different emotions. They laugh, they cry, they smile, they dance, and much more. Different emotions in different situations Emotions come out naturally, and they become more real when we express them in front of the person we are deeply attached to. But does emotion signify anyone’s personality?

Crying is one such emotion that manifests itself in both happy and sad situations. But why are people who cry emotionally considered weak? In our childhood, we all participated in various indoor and outdoor games. We used to cry whenever we were hurt, and I have cried a lot of times, but I was always told not to cry; only weak people cry. Boys, in particular, are frequently told, “Don’t cry like a girl.”

I used to believe that crying made me weak; however, I was ignorant of the definitions of strong and weak. I had the impression that being strong meant being physically fit and being weak meant being physically weak. Every time a tear rolled down my cheeks, I was always consoled by the words “be strong, don’t cry.” But it wasn’t always that I cried when I was hurt; as I grew older, I was drawn to every genre of Bollywood film action, comedy, thriller, horror, and romance. A lot of times, I laughed hard during comedy sequences or got scared during horror scenes. However, I frequently wiped my tears away during emotional movie scenes.

While growing up, I started becoming more emotional. Yes, I did not cry. I used to hide my emotions, but somewhere inside I used to get deeply affected. Getting separated from friends, siblings, and families made me connect with emotions even more deeply. Yes, I have been emotional in love too. Watching the person I loved with someone else made me realize that love can emotionally break anyone.

I have three older sisters and one younger brother, and we spent our childhood celebrating various festivals, playing games, eating and sleeping together, and so on. It was when my eldest sister was getting married. One month before the wedding, the thing that bothered me was that nothing would remain the same. Her presence will be missed. One of the hardest moments in a woman’s life is to leave everything behind, including family. On the day of the wedding, everyone was crying, including my father. It was the first time I had witnessed my father becoming emotional and crying I controlled myself.  A few years later, another sister was getting married, and again I saw my father crying I could not control as well, so I cried. The youngest of the three sisters was getting married six months later, and yet again, my father cried. In all 3 marriages, I saw a strong man cry without bothering whether he would be judged as a weak or strong person. I saw a responsible father crying. Yes, he was not alone in his tears my mother sobbed even more. We were all crying, so he wasn’t alone.

I’ve been crying a lot lately, mostly alone, not because I’m afraid of how people will react to it, but because I want to keep it to myself. But one question is still unanswerable. Does getting emotional make us weak, or does any of our emotion reflect our personality? If we feel free to show how happy we are, why do we hide our emotions when we are emotional? Can we normalize getting emotional and crying?

Prajwal Thapa, Tilottama-01, Shankarnagar “Banwatika” Rupandehi