Learning Experience 1

              Trying to come up with a learning experience can be hard. Not because I lack them, but because I have so many of them daily. For this learning experience, I decided to do what any young person living in the twenty-first century would do. I began to surf the web. I typed in humor into my Tumblr search bar. As I scrolled, all I seemed to find were dumb memes that related to small groups of people and a bunch of random pictures of cats doing funny things. None of these helped me come up with a valid learning experience. I finally scrolled past something worthwhile, a quote from Charlie Chaplin the king of slapstick comedy. Chaplin once said, “My pain may be the reason for somebody’s laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody’s pain.” I believe that Chaplin’s moto exemplifies what it means to be a true comedian and relates well to what we have discussed in class. A comedian in many ways is someone who sacrifices a part of themselves to bring joy to others. In Chaplin’s case, he sacrificed his safety and willingly humiliated himself to put a smile on people’s faces. Some comedians risk making fools of themselves to get people to laugh. I personally think that risking a part of yourself is a much more honorable form of comedy than just simply putting people down and risking someone else’s reputation for a laugh. When I started discerning between “honorable” comedy and “dishonorable” comedy, I stopped finding the offensive humor funny. I see offensive humor now as just a lack of effort and an easy route to getting a few laughs that tears people apart on the way there. I believe people should be selective about humor. What people find funny says a lot about their character. I pride myself on my sense of humor and I respect people who have different senses of humor. Humor makes this world diverse. A true comedian obviously wants people to find them funny, but what they really want is for people to relate and find importance in their deeper message. Comedians do not put their honor on the line to simply get laughs, they put their honor on the line as a way to share a part of themselves, their beliefs, and their pain. We should honor true comedians and laugh not because everyone else is laughing but because what they had to say struck a note in our heads. Now the pain a comedian puts forth may come from a darker place and we see comedians that battle depression all the time. I find this relationship between sadness and laughter fascinating and I am planning on going to go more into depth on it in another entry. However, for now, I try to remember that comedians are people too and that there is a difference between comedians who let people laugh at their pain and comedians who laugh at other people’s pain

Uncontrollable Laughter Part I

 Choosing one time of breaking out into uncontrollable laughter might be one of the most challenging prompts I have had to face. I laugh a lot. Even if something is not funny, but extremely awkward, I will still produce a giggle to loosen tension. I can always find a reason to laugh even on my worst days, but to write two pages on a time of uncontrollable laughter requires a special occasion. As I struggle to think of the perfect moment, I cannot help but read the posters on my roommate’s wall. Summer, my roommate, loves sayings and has at least twenty of them taped up. Even though I have never particularly payed much attention to them, for some reason one by an anonymous author sticks out to me today. It reads, “But the most beautiful things in life are not just things. They’re people, and places, and memories and pictures. They’re feelings and moments and smiles and laughter.” I sit and think and the moment where laughter opened my eyes to the beauty of life finally came to me.

             
This summer I set out on a trip through Eastern Europe that ended up being an adventure of a lifetime. I knew no one in my group and I had no idea to expect, but I left with enough memories to last a lifetime. Throughout the four weeks of exhausting but rewarding travel, the group began to become more like a family unit rather than just fourteen travelers. Even though the entire trip was filled with laughter because we had quite a few comedians with us, there was one specific moment of uncontrollable laughter that was deep and genuine. It happened our last week in Prague when we all started to realize that our time together in this magical place was coming to a close. We all went to a light show where people use light to tell a story. Although the experience sounded cool on our itinerary, the light show ended up being unbelievably terrible. For almost two hours we sat through people making awkward jokes, actors making obvious mistakes with the lights, and two funky comedians messing with our one and only Dan Williams. By the time the curtains closed, our group was about running for the doors to get out of the theater only to be confronted with a torrential downpour of rain. Seven of us got separated from the rest of the group, but as we looked back to see the mass of people coming out we knew our only choice would be to book it back to the hotel which happened to be quite a ways away.

The seven of us took with little sense of direction. We eventually stopped under a building and all took a moment to look at each other. With our shoes absolutely soaked and hair drenched all we could do was laugh. We laughed so hard that eventually the rain on our cheeks turned into tears. We gathered ourselves together to find the nearest subway and continued to run and slip on the slippery cobblestone of the Prague streets. Some local Czechs also joined in with us as we began to purposefully slide around on the streets as if it was a game. All of my surroundings seemed cinematic. Once we finally made it to the subway and were undercover we all looked at our drenched clothes and laughed again. No one had to say a word. At that moment all of us realized where we were, the people we were with, the memories we made, and rejoiced in laughter. I could never have pictured myself with these people in this place and I am sure they felt the same. As we waited for our train we danced underground and continued to laugh as the locals stared at us crazy Americans. We knew that even though this trip would come to an end in just a few days, we would take these beautiful moments with us and hold them close as we went back to our normal TCU lives. A sad end became a thrilling beginning. It was laughing with people that meant so much to me that opened my eyes to how important a little adventure in life can be. 

My First Lunch With Debora!

              When I finally received the email notifying me of my conversation partner, my eyes quickly scanned the email to where they listed the country. Debora from Brazil, yes! I honestly would have been excited with a partner from any country around the world, but Brazil seemed exotic, foreign, and has a spot in “Hailey’s Top 10 Places to Travel” list. Not only did Brazil fascinate me, but Tobias, my good friend from high school, lived in Rio de Janeiro before moving to Oregon. I knew that if Debora and I ran out of conversation topics, I could at least find something to relate to her from what Tobias told me about Brazil. I immediately emailed her in anticipation of meeting a new friend different from my “everyday friends” at TCU. However, after a week of patiently waiting for her response and another week of trying to coordinate a time to meet, I began to worry about our meeting. Her English over texting was rough and each message took a few minutes to decode. I had already experienced studying abroad over the summer and trying to converse with people who knew almost no English, and I did not want relating to Debora to be that challenging.

              Once we finally found a time to meet and decided on the BLUU, which she called “the restaurant,” all of my apprehensions vanished upon introduction. Even though I occasionally had to help with her with words, her spoken English was much clearer than her written English. Right away I realized that Debora is the twenty-seven year old, Brazilian version of myself. After the customary small talk such about our hometowns and studies, we dove right into conversations I have had with some of my closest friends. We talked about weddings and how girls in Brazil and girls in America both start planning at a ridiculously early age. She married a man from Michigan three months ago, so we scrolled through all of the beautiful photos of her Brazilian-American wedding. She gave me advice on planning a wedding and opened up about how she believes in love at first sight and sometimes you just know you are with the right person. We discussed all of the places we have been so fortunate to travel to and how being on your own in a foreign place have been some of our scariest, but most rewarding adventures. We laughed about our love for soccer or futbol and our confusion with American football. We talked for over an hour, but we both could have sat there for longer if we did not both have prior engagements.

              As we discovered differences and similarities about ourselves, we could not help but laugh. I had no idea what to expect from Debora, so I created my expectations on what I have heard about Brazilians and I am sure she based her expectations of me on her idea of a typical American college student. Throughout lunch, we constantly broke the expectations we set for one another. She laughed when I told her how sororities are actually not like Legally Blonde and how Hollywood negatively portrays them. It fascinated me to learn about Carnival and how even though the rest of the world views it as a big crazy party, Brazilians hold the traditions close to their hearts. I believe that people naturally create expectations of one another, but we must be willing to let go of those expectations and just laugh. Yes, I felt awkward when Debora leaned in to kiss my cheek goodbye and I head dodged the contact, but I laughed. When I embrace differences no matter how goofy they may be, I become open to creating deep and meaningful connections. I am already counting down the days until my next lunch with Debora!