THE SUBTLE ART OF CALLING YOUR MOM CRYING by Ashley Powers
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can handle it, you tell yourself as tears escape from your eyes and run down your face. I shouldn’t bother her, you think, but then you remember that you feel better every time you call your mom crying. Maybe it’s not your mom, maybe your tearful call is to your best friend, your therapist, a sibling, or even a significant other. Unless you’re the first perfect person to ever exist, most of us need a pressure relief valve for when life builds up inside us, and mine just happens to be calling my mom. Breakdowns can happen for any reason, it could be a job setback, it could be problems with a significant other, maybe you’re about to start your period, or maybe you have no idea what it is. Our feelings somehow become an overwhelming force that we can’t face ourselves. Yet, we simultaneously feel badly pulling anyone else into the emotional twister we find ourselves in. It’s hard not to feel like a burden when we call out for the help of someone else, but if the roles were reversed we know
we’d do the same for our loved ones the end of the call you feel betin a heartbeat. That’s what un- ter and wonder why you even conditional love is about anyway. doubted calling them in the first place. Finally, you can take a deep See, burdens are like a pizza or breath and carry on with your day. cake, they’re meant to be shared. As much as we want to take them Our twenties are tough, and the on all by ourselves, I can almost thought that we’re supposed to guarantee your insides be grown up and self-sufficient will feel sicker not shar- can make needing the help of ing. Or maybe they’re others feel like a setback. But belike a large piece of fur- ing strong doesn’t always mean niture, we think we can carry it all handling it on your own, someby ourselves, but calling in a help- times it means reaching out and er makes it infinitely easier and relieving the pressure. After all, reduces the chances of self injury. letting all that pressure build is setting us up for an explosion. So, you make your tearful calls to your person. Sometimes for advice, So let’s take it as a lesson to not sometimes just asking for someone be so hard on ourselves. That to listen. And they reassure you “perfect” person we compare ourthat you’re not a loser, and that life selves to is probably calling their can be hard but you’re doing a great mom crying too. I mean, after job handling it. For a moment you all, we’re all just twentysomesee yourself through their eyes, and thing-year-old-teenage-girls anysuddenly don’t feel so small because way. So make that call, and don’t it’s not just you facing your challeng- feel bad about it for a second bees, you have people on your team. cause even the strongest soldiers need their mommies sometimes. Usually they can tell right away by the tone of your voice. Sometimes the first words out of your mouth manifest as sobs, but by THE POST GRAD GAZETTE, FEBRUARY 13, 2024
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