is it really that uncommon to cry at airports?

I always cry when I put my DD back on the plane for her return flight to the U.S. Twice a year. And it doesn't get easier as the years progress. In fact, it seems to be getting harder.

I'm in the airport crying now, lol! I just left my best friend in LA after helping her drive cross-country to get here.   :\\\'( Everyone is walking by looking at me like I'm crazy!   

My partner and I see each other every 3 weeks. We never have to wait any longer between trips. So you'll be shocked to hear that we often cry like crazy! Sometimes we get tearful for the whole day before the departure. Sometimes we don't cry at all, and in fact that can feel weirder.

Leaving the USA (New York, normally Newark) I've never seen anyone else crying unless it's small kids and grandparents kind of thing, but at terminal 3 at Heathrow there are always others crying.

We don't like being apart so we cry. How can there be anything wrong with that?

Awww   I can relate to that.

Oddly enough, I don't cry in the airport, and I go through a long stage of denial before I get depressed.  I've gotten together with my boyfriend three times now, and every time I get depressed after we're away from each other; I seem to either feel bored and aimless or completely stressed out to the point where I don't want to do anything.  I cry randomly and feel stupid about it.  I can't focus on homework or anything else.  I go through the motions and do the minimal amount of stuff I have to do, and I don't feel like being around my friends that much.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm trying to dissociate myself from my friends or if we're naturally growing apart, but honestly I have trouble feeling close to anyone.  I really feel closer to Stuart than to anyone else.  There's no one that I want to talk to when I'm upset besides him.

Also, I think the reason I don't cry at the airport is that for some reason I'm really good at "holding it in" in public.  It's sort of like when I'm drunk and pretend I'm 100% sober-- maybe not everyone falls for it, but they don't say that they suspect anything.  Hmm, that analogy makes me want a drink.

Maybe it's my particular situation, but all I've been able to think about for weeks now is how badly I want to go to Britain.  On days when I don't talk to Stuart online I start crying, and when he is there I'll talk for 6 hours at a time and abandon the other things I'm supposed to be doing.

Maybe this has gone too far...

(well, I do have a history of manic depression...)

I cried a LOT when I left my darling in July...had an overwhelming sense of wrongness, to be leaving him there and returning "home" where he wasn't...it didn't (and doesn't) feel like home any more.  As I sobbed to him while he held me at the airport and tried to console me, it's not right, this is wrong, I shouldn't be leaving... that feeling continued once home, and although I am not just shy of hysterical about it, I still feel the same now.

I can honestly see why so many turn into overstayers...Sometimes I think the only thing that prevents me from doing so is my son. (yes, I know it's illegal and all, and I know I'll be doing it the right way. I just understand why it happens...)

I'm going to see him again in 16 days (YAYYYY!!!) and am already dreading the leaving...gonna be SO hard.

when i got deported, i was bawling like a baby.... that was the only time, i cried the whole way back ........ the flight attendant was very kind to me... and i was pregnant at the time;)

when i got deported, i was bawling like a baby

Oh dear--deported!    You must have also been scared that maybe they'd never let you back in the country?  Glad you got through that and are back in the UK now. 

I can honestly see why so many turn into overstayers...Sometimes I think the only thing that prevents me from doing so is my son. (yes, I know it's illegal and all, and I know I'll be doing it the right way. I just understand why it happens...)

had an overwhelming sense of wrongness, to be leaving him there and returning "home" where he wasn't...it didn't (and doesn't) feel like home any more.

As soon as I understood the legal ramifications of overstaying there was *no way* I was going to risk never being let back into the country to see him again!

But I do agree with you that "home" is now wherever your love is, not where it once was.

For the OP - I am from PA (allentown) and moved to Leeds over 2yrs ago! So I did the PHila to Manchester route many times. I cried each time he left me in the US and when I left here in the UK. I would try and hold it back sometimes, then cry to myself on the plane etc... It was so difficult. I see it sometimes now and I think of the movie "Love Actually" and I cry when I watch the beginning and end of that too - airports just go to show how much people can mean to you and how much you love them. I say it's a good thing and it's good for the soul

I even got emotional when my hubby left for a 10 day trip away from me 2 weeks ago, I prefer to have him with me after we started out as LDR.

J-Man and I have had our share of crying in airport terminals and bus depots. I even cry when I see him again for the first time, but obviously it is happy tears. I've never seen anyone else crying in the airport but that could be because I'm not looking for it. Now I wonder how many people have watched us cry and hold on to eachother and what they thought..hmmm. When I was in Leeds in March I made him watch Love Actually with me and he loved it. The best part of Love Actually is that in the end, it all works out-just like J-Man and I will. So I say pack the tissues and let the tears flow.

I just cried like a baby saying good bye to my sister and her family last friday.

I cried when i got detained. I was exhausted, which made things worse. There were people yelling and cussing out the guards. (great way to convince them to let you stay in the country!) The phone wouldnt work to call anyone in the UK and it took ages for me to get in touch with anyone in the US. (it wouldnt let me call a cell phone) I was scared they were not going to let me in the country, scared that they could hold me there for days. I had never been in trouble before-not even ever sent to the principles office as a child.

They let me have my book so I just laid there and read most of "Princess Bride" trying not to think about what was going on, as I had no control over it. I was so exhausted and there are these awful cold metal benches. I tried to sleep, but it didnt happen...mostly I just cried. And the more I tried not to cry, the more i did.

hi andee, yeah, it was rough for a moment... i didnt have the right visa, i was coming to get married but to not to live, man have i learnt a lot.. anyways there was another american girl she was from chicago, and she too got sent back .. she was on a work visa and they didnt do somethign right, so me and her was the only ones from the west there... it was tense... but they were nice to me, they let my dh come and he gave me some cash, and we sat in a small room together for about 15 mintues until my flight, but it was so humilating.... having the security walk me to the plane and such....anyways im here legally! and good to go until june 2009 yay!... wow kathleen i can imgine how hard it was to say bye to ur family, my family wont come  here..........

When I came to London to visit Mark the first time I didn't cry when we said goodbye, even after seeing his eyes get teary, but the entire flight home I bawled like a baby. I couldn't stop. Sitting beside me was a really cool woman who had just gone to see her fiance too so we pretty much held each other for a while and we eventually laughed at my silliness. I would have cried anyway but I think because I was so tired it didn't help at all.

When I dropped him off after he spend 2 1/2 months with me I couldn't get out of the airport without crying. Then I sat in the garage crying for a while, then I tried driving home and that was really hard while I was crying.

I don't look forward to leaving on my next trip. I swear that after this next trip to see him, the next trip, I won't say goodbye again.

. I swear that after this next trip to see him, the next trip, I won't say goodbye again.

That's what I said to myself and he ended up proposing to me on the last trip!  We stil had to say goodbye, but since I was going home to get my fiance visa it wasn't as bad and I didn't cry since I knew I was coming back to the UK a.s.a.p.!

Sitting beside me was a really cool woman who had just gone to see her fiance too so we pretty much held each other for a while

Just my opinion, but...     
No way... never... not me.  A stranger on a plane?  Holding?
There would be nothing in the world that could make me do this.  (Unless he was really cute!)