The Stoics and The Epicurians- First Impressions

While I was reading the latest class readings- Epicurus and Epictetus, I looked up what Stoics were as a refresher and I was introduced to what Epicureans are. However, before I looked up what stoicism is, my first thought was just what the word "stoic" means.

*When I think of stoic, I think of stern, emotionless, etc.*

While reading Epictetus, I took some notes & ended up getting 2 main ideas from him. One of the two was the whole idea of repression of reactions and emotions aka having a stoic kind of attitude. As for epicureans, I saw a lot of similarities and I thought I even saw something about Epicurus having connections to stoicism, or his ideas being founded in it. However, I didn't notice as much in his writings about mind or matter, controlling of emotions kind of thing. They seemed a little more laid back and interested in other people than the stoics in my first impression. The funny thing to me was that I liked a lot of what Epictetus wrote, and agreed with a lot of his ideas, however being the emotional person I am, I found myself disagreeing with some of his ideas about how to react or not react, but I also found myself learning a little about how to remain calm...