Crying (the good kind)

Here's a lighthearted blogpost in honor of a chunk of senior year stress being gone:)

What makes me laugh? In an effort to answer this question by trying to rewind my memory and frantically scroll through my camera roll, I've actually answered another question of mine. People always say to cherish the small moments, and I've wondered how it's possible to always do this. Why do we have to cherish eating dinner on a Wednesday night? I've now realized that so many of my favorite memories are the smallest, most random things, rather than the most extravagant moments. It is so important to find joy in the small things in life like taking my dog on a walk, grocery shopping, going to piano lessons, or eating dinner. If I enjoy the most constant things in my everyday life, I will most likely enjoy my overall life more. This is why some of the best things are simply just taking Scout for a walk at 7pm on a weekday, shopping at Trader Joes (best place ever), or always making time to sit and enjoy eating dinner on a busy school night.

Now onto actually answering the question "what makes me laugh"? Things my friends say unexpectedly,  looking back at traumatizing moments but suddenly they're funny, the kid that I've never heard talk in class suddenly say the funniest thing I've heard all week, someones laugh itself that's hilarious. If you asked me what the best character trait to find in someone is... it would be humor. If you were to ask me what one of my favorite activities was... it would be laughing. Well, not the laughing where you giggle for five seconds max, but the kind where you are crying and on the floor because your stomach hurts. While searching google curiously to see why we humans even laugh, I stumbled across an article by John Tierney titled "What's So Funny? Well, Maybe Nothing". Within this article there is a quote from Professor Panksepp that states "laughter is an honest social signal because it's hard to fake", and I couldn't agree with this statement more. Tierney also discusses how laughter is mainly subconscious, a tool for survival. The act is less about understanding the joke, and more about doing it to fit in. Although it is a little sad that sometimes we laugh just for the sake of doing it, I'm just glad that laughter is a thing. Sometimes a good laugh can make a bad day just that much better.

A few moments that made me laugh:

While watching a baking show on TV yesterday, I heard something I thought was pretty funny. One of the contestants baked a cake shaped like a pig and said it was inspired by her pet pig Susie. One of the hosts then asked what happened to Susie, and the contestant very casually said "oh she slept on ice. We had to put her down." Although in reality this is sad, the way she said it so casually (like pet pigs sleeping on ice is of the utmost normalcy) was so funny to me and apparently to all the contestants, hosts, and judges because they were laughing too.

During sophomore year while filming our video for our HOSA project on the topic "stop the bleed", my team and I went to the woods at 6 pm on a weekend night. We biked to the Troy High woods with a bag filled with ketchup and paint to hopefully create a realistic blood scene. Right as we got onto the path to the forest, the bag got stuck under one of our bike gears and the ketchup bottle exploded. Even though it was getting dark and stuff already started going wrong, we decided to continue. We threw fake blood everywhere on the snow and started filming. We were by ourselves in the forest, it was pitch black and we had to use flashlights. Between being in the freezing cold snow, hearing people walk their dogs but instead thinking we were gonna get kidnaped, and a failed video attempt, I often look back at this moment and can't help but laugh.

Past Plans:

Band Hayride🍁🍂🍁

Senior Skip Day Brunch🥞🧇☕

VR game at band laser tag. fun but definitely scary