1991: "My Girl"
A bunch of kids from my seventh grade class made a group outing to see the movie "My Girl" starring Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky. First (spoiler alert), can we talk about how misleading the title of the movie is? The movie should just be called "BEES!!!" Anyway, per those bees, the boy in question is separated from "his girl" when he dies due to a million bee stings. When this happened, all the girls in my group cried and cried. I didn't cry. First of all, I was kind of glad that Macauley Culkin passed away, if I'm being quite honest. I never really liked him. Secondly, I found this turn of events ludicrous, instead of tragic. Thirdly, I just wasn't much of a pop-culture crier at this point. I'd cry for human emotions: sadness or frustration or tiredness or what have you, but I didn't cry much yet at movies or anything. But I felt left out that everybody else was crying except me. Maybe I just felt like a robot next to them, or maybe I suspected that if you cried, the boys in the group would pay attention to you. I pretended to sniffle a few times but I confess here and now that I never really cried at "My Girl."

1997: "Titanic"
Similar situation: sophomore year of college, I went with my friends Liz, Lauren and Brooke to see "Titanic" the way the rest of the world did in 1997. (Another very old spoiler alert): I never felt a real chemistry between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio (who has never gotten my motor running in terms of being a dreamboat, by the way) and found parts of the movie irritating (like that "King of the world!" nonsense, and when Rose gives the bad guys the finger when she escapes down the elevator.) Also? The actual sinking of the Titanic was SO MUCH SADDER than a stupid made-up guy dying in a stupid movie! But once again, I was the lone robot. My friends cried when Jack died, cried throughout the end of the movie, and were still crying by the time we left the theater, at which point they all started laughing while we walked back to school at how funny their crying was. Like with "My Girl," I felt left out. I wanted to be laughing because I'd been crying so much! But I wasn't. Once again, I might have faked a few tears.

2012: "The Fault in Our Stars"
I have not yet seen the movie but I did read the book. I don't cry at books, I should tell you. I cry at commercials all the time (I don't know why) and sometimes movies but the only book that ever made me cry was "Of Mice And Men." Anyway, I won't spoil "TFIOS" for you but you can probably guess that something sad happens if you know anything about this book. At the climax of extreme sadness in the book, I felt a slight welling inside me. This was it! I was going to cry at another book, and one that everyone is supposed to cry it! (Seriously: a friend of mine told me recently that someone said "I won't judge you" when she confessed that she also didn't cry at "TFIOS"). But then, it went away. It was like the disappearing sneeze of cries.