It's safe to say that something America is desperately trying to work on is the avoidance of insulting those around them. While we're still muddling through what it looks like to be a great example of respect and kindness, there is one area of insults we miss year after year. Not many people see this phrase as insulting or hurtful, yet it does all of the same things to a person that mosts insults do. If you look up what the word dramatic means in the dictionary, it will say it means sudden, extreme, attracting attention, and greatly affecting that person. The examples that it uses are when talking about a big change, an intense story, and even wardrobe. But nowhere does it state that it is used to call someone's emotions that.
As a society, we have accepted calling people and what they feel as "dramatic" or "emotional." These are complete misuses of the terms and also a misuse of how to treat a person. When someone tells you something that they find major/important and it is their initial reaction to think the very best or worst to something, to call them dramatic emphasizes a negative connotation to how you think they should be feeling rather than how they are actually feeling.
The minute that you tell someone that they are being dramatic, this tells them so many misconceptions. It tells them that you think they are just acting this way for show or attention, and it says that you see their emotions for less than what they are. To call someone emotional sends a negative message as well. We are always telling people to be themselves and accept who they are, yet to the person who cries more than the regular human being or to someone who feels things deeper than most is insulting who they truly are.
Since when is it bad to be able to feel things so greatly because your heart is bigger than the cruelty of the world? When did it become wrong to have an initial thought of something in a big way? People who think big react even bigger. By telling someone they're emotional or dramatic just because their mind and heart can expand more than what is socially acceptable is something we should no longer accept.
If you have a friend that cries when they see you cry, you better hold onto them. If there's a girl in your study group who has big time reactions to ideas, you better believe she'll make that project you're working on something great because she cares that much more about it.
So next time you see someone being so-called emotional or dramatic, take a step back from rolling your eyes and thinking they should get over whatever may be going on to realize that they're human too, even if they take things differently than you do. You might just see the world a little bigger and even a little softer than how you did before.
