Crying in Public

It's something I've always done with embarrassing regularity, and this new gig is no exception. I cried during a sad movie in Regional Studies class, during a one-on-one conversation with my Spanish instructor talking about how much I missed my husband and dogs, after what I felt was an unjust result on my Spanish evaluation, and most recently, out of frustration with the instructor during Spanish class but really for no good reason at all. That last one was pretty ridiculous. Turns out it was largely attributable to coming down with a cold that's overtaken my 3-day weekend.

Looking back at my long and illustrious history of crying in public, I realize that I have seen far fewer people cry in public than have seen me do so. That means I'm in a minority. How do the non-cryers do it? Can you will yourself not to? I've tried and have even pinched pretty deep dents in the backs of my hands, but to no avail.

When my friend N, who preceded me in the Foreign Service by a year or so, told me that everyone cries at some point during language study, I thought she was mad. But now I can see it can hit you at any point. Or at least, it can hit me.