Where i talk about overly dramatic interpretations of life.

Balian has spent the last thirty minutes crying and pitching an all out fit. Over what? I have no earthly idea. It started when i handed him a sippy cup. This comical expression came over his face, like the end of the world had come, and he started crying, as if i had ruined his entire life because of that sippy cup. Now anyone who knows me, and knows me well, knows that i tend to be overly dramatic about EVERYTHING. I take emotions to the extreme. I can be incredibly happy or incredibly sad; incredibly angry or incredibly blah. There is no mediation where that is concerned, it's one extreme or it's the other. And apparently i have passed that down into Balian. He can be the happiest baby in the world one moment, the most miserable a minute after that. All because of a sippy cup.

We tend to be more understanding of babies and young children being incredibly dramatic, yet we criticize teenagers and up for it. I was called a "Drama Queen" for most of my teenage life by my family. Not because i was always involved with issues of one type or another, but because i have an overly dramatic interpretation of life. If I found out that someone was talking about me behind my back, i would become seriously pissed, blasphemy their name to anyone who would listen, become incredibly hurt and maybe cry, then calm down and become their best friend again (i'm also incredibly forgiving... to a fault). I think my mom became greatly confused by this. As an adult (i can't believe i'm calling myself that), i'm not as bad as i used to be, but i still tend to overplay things. I've mellowed out some, yet every once in a while i still have that tendency to dramaticize and blow of out proportion some situation or another. It's not for attention. It's just the way that i am.

And i am criticized for it. A lot. Why do people feel like they have to criticize the very things that make you, you? Those things that make you unique and special? I tend to say jealousy. We live in a society that values the cookie cutter mold, where everyone is expected to act a certain age in certain social situations. The person that breaks that mold is frowned upon and told to stop acting so immature. I believe that being immature is one thing, but being true to yourself is another thing entirely. I'm not advocating going into a restaurant and being as barbaric as possible (hopefully that's not in your nature). I'm only wondering why, if we as Christians and as Americans advocate love to everyone, we only love those that fit our mold of how others should act. Shouldn't we be the first to cherish the very quirks that make us all individuals? If we started embracing the individualism in ourselves, maybe then we'd be able to embrace the uniqueness in others.