For The Girls Who Cry In Bathroom Stalls

For The Girls Who Cry In Bathroom Stalls

You are allowed to be vulnerable when other people are watching. You are allowed to unleash your emotions, to open the floodgates and admit you are not okay, instead of hiding your real emotions behind a mask.

You don’t have to put on a brave face. You don’t have to lie about being fine. You don’t have to act like you are unbreakable, like nothing ever hurts your feelings.

You are only human. You are allowed to break down. You are allowed to get upset. You are allowed to cry your eyes out, even over something silly, something you cannot imagine anyone else understanding.

You don’t have to escape into the bathroom every time you cry. You don’t have to squash any emotion you experience other than happiness. You don’t have to act like a robot because you are worried someone will accuse you of overreacting, of causing drama where there isn’t any, of being a baby.

Your emotions are valid. Your reaction is valid. No one else can tell you how you should feel. If they disrespect your feelings, if they act like you are a bother for coming to them with your problems, then it says more about them than it does about you. It says they are toxic. It says they are not worth your energy.

You are allowed to have shitty days. You are allowed to complain. You are allowed to feel like an emotional mess.

Everyone has days where they feel like everything has gone wrong, where they aren’t sure how many more setbacks they can take. Everyone has broken down in the middle of a work week. You just don’t realize it because they are hiding in bathroom stalls, too. They are pretending to be fine, the same way as you are.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to act heartless in order to fit in with everyone else. You don’t have to hide behind your sarcasm to seem chill. You don’t have to act like everything rolls off your back, like words could never hurt you, like you are immune to emotion.

You are allowed to get angry, to get sad, to get frustrated. You are allowed to call someone out when they upset you instead of crying about it as soon as they leave the room. You are allowed to say what’s on your mind.

You are allowed to act vulnerable, to admit when something is bothering you, even when it seems like the rest of the world is bragging about how little they care.

You should never be ashamed about crying in bathroom stalls — but you should remember you don’t have to cry in bathroom stalls. You can cry out in the open. You can cry on shoulders.

The right people are not going to get scared off when you show genuine emotion. They are going to be flattered you trust them enough to be real with them. They are going to be honored to help you in any way they can. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Holly is the author of Severe(d): A Creepy Poetry Collection.

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