Laughter always leaves me feeling amazed. It's so powerful and so natural. I've never heard a laugh I didn't like because it's such a pure expression of emotion. Everyone has a different sense of humor, but you can still find a joke to make everyone laugh. And even two people who speak completely different languages can laugh at the things going on around them that don't require words to explain. Laughter as an experience has a way of bringing people together and helping them form bonds that other experiences fall short of being able to provide.
I think my favorite part of laughter is the fact that when we laugh, it's a brief reprieve from everything that weighs us down. I remember when I was a kid and had just gotten my braces taken off, my siblings and I were packing up my mom's classroom because it was the end of the school year. One of us made a joke and we all laughed for a few minutes. When we were done my brother told me that he missed my smile. What? At no point in my life had I ever just stopped smiling. He pointed out to me that when I had braces - and even for some time after I had gotten them removed - I would subconsciously cover my mouth with my hand because I was insecure about my smile. That's when I realized that people (myself included) could be self-conscious of themselves when they laughed. Be it their smile, body, or even the laugh itself.
BUT something amazing happens when someone laughs so hard that their insecurities just fade away. They stop covering their smile, they're not concerned about the ways parts of their body move when they laugh, and they let loose that loud, snorty laugh they hide all the time because someone told them it was obnoxious a long time ago. They stop worrying about life's tribulations, even if only for a little while. But even 30 seconds of laughter out of the 86,400 seconds in a day are everything; a bastion of joy in a stressful and often negative world (dramatic, I know). Now that I'm typing this, I realize that this is probably why I like making people laugh so much. What a gift to give!
Also, so many things have to align juuuuust right for a joke to come together. Even for the simplest and shortest pun, so many things have to fall into place for that specific joke to be made. That's astounding to me!
Justice Thomas, North Carolina
Student
I think my favorite part of laughter is the fact that when we laugh, it's a brief reprieve from everything that weighs us down. I remember when I was a kid and had just gotten my braces taken off, my siblings and I were packing up my mom's classroom because it was the end of the school year. One of us made a joke and we all laughed for a few minutes. When we were done my brother told me that he missed my smile. What? At no point in my life had I ever just stopped smiling. He pointed out to me that when I had braces - and even for some time after I had gotten them removed - I would subconsciously cover my mouth with my hand because I was insecure about my smile. That's when I realized that people (myself included) could be self-conscious of themselves when they laughed. Be it their smile, body, or even the laugh itself.
BUT something amazing happens when someone laughs so hard that their insecurities just fade away. They stop covering their smile, they're not concerned about the ways parts of their body move when they laugh, and they let loose that loud, snorty laugh they hide all the time because someone told them it was obnoxious a long time ago. They stop worrying about life's tribulations, even if only for a little while. But even 30 seconds of laughter out of the 86,400 seconds in a day are everything; a bastion of joy in a stressful and often negative world (dramatic, I know). Now that I'm typing this, I realize that this is probably why I like making people laugh so much. What a gift to give!
Also, so many things have to align juuuuust right for a joke to come together. Even for the simplest and shortest pun, so many things have to fall into place for that specific joke to be made. That's astounding to me!
Justice Thomas, North Carolina
Student