I Promised Myself I Wasn't Going to Do This

The kindergarten teacher at my primary school used to do this presentation at graduation ceremonies at the end of each school year to the most improved student in her class. Invariably it would involve her saying at some point, "I promised myself I wasn't going to do this..." which was shortly followed by her choking back tears and getting emotional as she talked about this student who much to her chagrin had apparently caused her to break her promise. The first year this happened it was quite touching but by year six I was like, "Why do you keep making that stupid promise to yourself when everybody knows you have no intention of keeping it. Plus, the kid you're crying about is five years old which means there's plenty of time for him or her to become a total screw up and then you'll really have something to cry about." The truth is that the main reason the whole charade really got to me was because the award was a train made out of chocolate and all of these stupid underachievers kept winning it and I'm like, "How much more do I need to underachieve around here to get some respect (or at least a chocolate train)?"

The reason I was reminded of this was because today the big political headline was about how Hillary Clinton got slightly emotional at a campaign stop and it was spun in a few different ways. The first was that it was some form of a last ditch effort to garner support by showing that she's not a robot and the second was that this was evidence of why a woman couldn't handle the upper echelons of power because she'd be busy crying in her coffee anytime she was under pressure.

First of all, I can pretty much guarantee that Hillary would not be crying as a way of garnering support. Besides the fact that it's just not her style, she knows better than anyone that it will only be perceived as weakness. Secondly, I get so annoyed with people who assume that women cry because we're weak. I just want to set the record straight for anyone that thinks a woman getting slightly emotional proves she's weak. From personal experience I can tell you that women cry for a number of reasons. We cry when we're frustrated, we cry when we're angry, and of course we cry when we're sad. Plus, any one of these reasons could be triggered without good reason by a lack of sleep. I just never understood how this was any different then someone who gets frustrated and blows their top. Both involve someone losing control but somehow losing your cool is an acceptable way to go about it.

As you can probably tell, I have some very strong feelings on this issue. About a year ago I was in a meeting with my boss where I got so frustrated that tears started welling up in my eyes and I had to go to "my happy place" in my head just to prevent the floodgates from opening. I managed to hold back the tide but he knew that I was on the verge. The next day, he came by my office to have a "heart to heart" with me. He proceeded to tell me that as I progress in my career I needed to do a better job of controlling my emotions. First of all, I know this and the last thing I wanted to do was put any of my emotions on display for him or anyone else. Then I thought to myself, "I'm sorry but aren't you the guy that loses his cool pretty much on the daily and has verbally abused everyone who works for you at some point?" Fortunately I knew the answer so I didn't bother asking the question but it really got my dander up. I pretended to accept his feedback graciously which I really should have earned a Best Actress Award for.

So that's my two cents on the matter so I say lay off Hillary already. She's operating on like two hours sleep and since she's sleeping next to Bill you know that's two hours with one eye open.