Today I watched 5 people cry. That beats my record, and probably most people's. For the last day of my practicum class, we had to go around and describe three strengths each person in the room possess. After the go-around, 4 eyes were dry: mine and Matt's. 2 robot jokes later and we still sat there. Like robots.
It's hard to pinpoint what makes people cry when they're happy. Being overcome with joy isn't an unnatural thing, that's not what I'm saying. Crying is a natural reaction when you're overcome with any emotion. What's interesting was the context of the situation. People were overcome with joy after hearing people list their strengths, and describe what they're good at. For 10 minutes, we were each forced to hear what people think we're good at. And that made people cry, overcome with joy.
Why is that? Were they unaware of the strengths described? Were the strengths something they were aware of, but hearing others say them was too overwhelming? Were they unaware of these strengths, and hearing them is overwhelming?
Maybe it's more complicated than that. Maybe hearing your own strengths reinforces a lot of things at once. It reinforces that we are succeeding, that those around us like us, and that we are capable of our dreams. Maybe we're hearing things that we are hesitant to think about, and hearing them from others puts them in fruition.
Maybe it's simpler than that. Maybe people just need to hear these things.
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"This is totally a script."
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No it's not.
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