The Comfy Corner

It fascinates me to no end how much our society is starting to embrace the whole idea of wearing our emotions on our sleeves. Back in the day it was just accepted that you had to bottle your emotions. Being emotionally forward in public was taboo. "Big boys don't cry." Well, all of those "big boys" were going home at night and crying uncontrollably into their pillows. Of course, it is still taboo for men to be seen crying in public, but we've come a long way! We see domesticate disputes in the streets all the time now. And while it is disturbing the peace, I still find it comforting to know that people are really communicating their emotions.

So, this is all leading me to an incident last night where I found myself sobbing uncontrollably (something I would never allow myself to do in high school.) Before I tell the story, though, I should give my theory on why I think I've changed. It's because I'm in acting school. All we do is embrace our emotions and recall things from our past and let go of our inhibitions. We are taught to be messy. So naturally, now I am a very emotionally unstable person. Thanks, college, I've learned a lot! I mean, thank God for my 3d glasses or else everyone would have seen how much I was sobbing at the end of Toy Story 3. I've never cried more in a movie. But the tears streaming behind those cheap, plastic glasses cannot compare to the tears from last night.

For the first time in my life, I was pulled over for speeding. I was driving on the interstate, but apparently when you get into Boston the speed limit jumps down to an embarassingly slow 30 miles per hour. I was cruising along beside a truck going the same speed as me at 68 mph. So naturally, I was the unlucky one that fell into the trap. As soon as the officer told me I was going 38 miles over the limit, I started sobbing. I wasn't trying to get out of the ticket, I was just feeling what I felt. "And that's okay!" my freshman acting teacher would say if she were there. But when the officer came back to tell me that he knocked the 850 dollar fine (!) down to 250 I was a mess. I couldn't speak to him and he was looking at me like I was insane. He was going on and on about safety and how I need to slow down and I was just crying and nodding. I didn't realize until I got home that he was looking at me like I was a maniac because I had just finished a show and I was still wearing eye liner. So I looked like a hooker that had just been beaten and tossed into the street.

So to all the men out there, it's okay to cry. As long as you aren't wearing eye liner.