Emotional Shmotional

I think I need to clear something up.

For most of my life, I have known very clearly, crystal clearly, who I am. In middle school, I was not the kid that searched to etch out my identity or desperately tried to fit in. I was blessed, and I say blessed with a bold appreciation, to be the kid that didn’t fall victim to much peer pressure because I knew who I was and I knew who I wasn’t.

And many of the things that I was then, I still am… just with more grown upness. But there is one I want to talk about today and clear up.

Emotional.

Hi. I am Jen and I am an emotional person.

And emotional people get a bad wrap. Here’s why…

When people hear emotional they think: unhinged, erratic, illogical, unreasonable, hot-headed, melodramatic, hysterical, frantic, worked up, sitting in a corner sobbing and oozing with emotion and snot… I think you get it. They think “Oh. She’s just emotional. You can’t go by what she thinks. She’s crazy and emotional. Her emotions get the best of her.” So calling people “emotional” gives others an easy scapegoat of why they are in the right and you, Emotional Emma, are not… cause you’re emotional, duh.

Here’s the problem with that. Emotional people aren’t crazy people. Emotional doesn’t mean irrational. It means emotional. I would argue that as an emotional person I am actually quite clear and very observant of what is happening because since my emotional gauge is so much more sensitive than a non emotional person I read people and situations quite well.

What people don’t think when they hear emotional can lead them to miss a whole spectrum of what emotional can actually be: demonstrative of feelings is one definition. Passionate, fiery, feeling, sentimental, affectionate, candid, expressive, outgoing, enthusiastic, wholehearted, and spontaneous are also words that can used to mean emotional.

For me, being emotional just means that I feel things more strongly than others do. I feel every emotion with intensity. I cry hard. I laugh really hard. I’m serious business when business is serious

EXHIBIT A: Serious Business

and all about the fun when there’s fun to be had.

EXHIBIT B: Havin’ the fun

When I love, I love with every piece of me that I have to give. Because of this if someone upsets me, I take it quite badly… because I love you (probably), otherwise you couldn’t upset me. Most wouldn’t think that I’m sensitive, nor would I describe myself as such but being that I can be emotional means that if someone betrays me, it hits hard. Hard. If I feel cornered, I react like a dog. I feel emotions. I hold them – all of them – love, sadness, confidence, anger, happiness, anxiousness, relaxation – fully…and then I let them go. It’s the only way I know.

But emotional doesn’t mean that I’m stupid or can’t control my emotions or have diarrhea of the mouth when I’m upset or mad or in disagreement. In fact, I think that in many circumstances knowing I am emotional has taught me to not say the first thing that comes to mind. (Sorry Mom, this statement is not for you. Nor is it for you, Husband. But that’s because I love you two the most.) My being emotional has served me well in life; it has definitely brought more good than bad in my journey. It is the reason I can be full on silly, the reason I cry when I hear the first Christmas song of the season, the reason I make Husband take pictures like a bowing ninja while taking a sake shot.