For as long as I can remember, I have always been a highly sensitive person (or, alternatively, a crybaby.)

I don't ever really remember a time when I could hear a joke made towards me without feeling a hot white rage or the sudden urge to cry, run away and hide, nor can I really remember not having the urge to compulsively apologize for almost everything I do such as always asking if someone is mad at me because they suddenly changed their tone (and it doesn't matter if it's in person or over text- I will ask you and I know it can be draining, but bear with me.)

For as long as I can remember, I've always been ashamed of being "too emotional."

I remember often thinking to myself constantly, and I am still guilty of thinking this way in my lowest moments, "why am I like this?" and "why couldn't I have been born emotion-less?" and I think it comes from the idea that somehow being too sensitive is an ugly thing, something to be ashamed of.

So I ask myself, and all you highly sensitive people out there, why does being "too emotional," have such a negative connotation to it?

What is it about the fact we might cry more than our friends and families combined that makes people assume that it is problem?

Why is being indifferent to our emotions celebrated and being in tune with our basic human instincts is scorned and ridiculed and turned into a joke?

Why is it that being a "crybaby," makes one weak and silly rather than simply human?

We are all human, we all have emotions, and we all cry. Sometimes, there are people who cry more than others, and you know what? That is okay; it's neither a crime nor a sin.

And despite what we might be feeling or thinking in the moment when we feel our sensitivity becoming too much of a burden rather than a blessing, it can be cathartic to feel pain and sorrow and to cry and to scream.

Ever notice that how after a nice long cry, you feel more peaceful (and sleepy)?

Yeah, it is a nice feeling- that is catharsis, that nice release from all the pent-up anger, sadness, pain and whatever else you might have been feeling;

let it out, be free.

In short fellow crybabies, there is no shame in feeling too much and there is also no such thing as "reacting the wrong way," what you feel is what you feel; it is valid, it is okay.

I still struggle with this concept somedays, and that is okay too. No matter how you feel, whether it be the "perfect amount" (whatever that is anyways) or "too much," everything that you feel and experience is valid and nobody has the right to make you feel ashamed.

Embrace the crybaby within you!

Who knows, maybe it can prove to be more useful to you than you think.