I just got off a flight where I watched a movie, and then cried for the remaining hour and a half of the trip. Those two events were completely unrelated, but that was my flight experience.

When I landed, I rushed to the bathroom. I had been stuck in a window seat, too worried about bothering the people next to me to ask them to move so I could get up. Once there, I found out I am, in fact, on my period. OHHHH. That’s why I was so emotional and non-stop crying on the plane.

But the second I realized that, the emotions I had just felt suddenly seemed to lose all their value. Why did the world program us this way? To feel ashamed and critical of our feelings? To be dismissive of our emotions and treat them as insignificant? Feelings are powerful, and I am not sure why we are so afraid of that power—yet I still am.