The Last Time I Cried

Spoiler, it was this evening

Published in

George vs Life

3 min readJan 16, 2017

I think that people don’t talk about crying often enough. Especially men. Especially young men. So this is me attempting to break the stigma around blokes and crying by telling the story of the last time I cried, which just so happened to be this evening.

When I was on the bus home from work I watched Donald trump’s news conference and it made me really sad because it really is as bad as everyone knows it to be. It’s not like the media are playing it up and actually he’s a sound dude, no, he’s actually a proper lunatic and God knows what’s going to happen once he gets the keys to the white house in a couple of weeks.

So yeah, I was feeling a bit down after that, so I was in a vulnerable state as it is. Then I saw that Barack Obama had just delivered his farewell speech and it’s an hour long and on YouTube, so of course I watched it.

And I don’t know if what then followed is normal, or even allowed, but I started crying my eyes out at what Obama was saying. I’m not even American for god’s sake.

Now it might be because Obama and myself sit very closely on the political/economic spectrum, or it might be because he’s been the best president to have ever lived and is a super inspirational man, or it might be cos he’s been training all his life to give speeches to make people feel like I did this evening. I don’t really care, I fucking loved it.

To anyone who hasn’t seen the speech yet, go google it and spend the next 60 minute watching it, just do it. Stop reading this and go.

I actually think it made me a better person. Like, it made me believe more in democracy, and understand better how this world that we live in works, and made me appreciate my privilege more than I ever have.

I consider myself so lucky to have grown up in a world where that man was president, and in such an amazing time in history as well. Smartphones changed the world like basically nothing in history ever has, and I was the perfect age for all of it. I’ve lived in 2 centuries, 3 decades and 25 years. (Yup, just worked it out. I’ve been alive in 25 different years. Fuck.)

So yeah, it was that mixture of vulnerability, appreciation, happiness and sadness that just let the tears flow. And you know what? I felt better because of it.

You won’t hear many blokes say this but I think a good cry is underrated. I’m not saying a sobbing uncontrollable cry, just a few tears. It’s good to release that shit from your system.

I suppose a lot of people are scared of crying because it makes them look/feel weak, when actually letting it out probably gives you a better control of your emotions because you’re not bottling shit up, which kind of makes you stronger if you think about it.

So yeah, I cried. And what?