Learning Experience 2

              One of my favorite days this year was when we had two members of Senseless Acts of Comedy come in. I have only seen the improv show twice, but each time I am falling out of my seat in laughter. I am amazed about how my peers can be so funny and creative at the drop of a hat. I have been to a few professional improv shows, and the shows SAC puts on were way better than any of those shows. Although that probably has a lot to do with the members of SAC being my age and using references only TCU students would understand, I still believe the students are much funnier than many professionals. The fact that both of the students had different paths of developing their skills fascinated me. They said that anyone can be funny and partake in improv, but it takes the specific ability of letting go of fears and reservations to be good at improv. I believe every word of that. In middle school, I took an improv class. I would like you to imagine me at the peak of my awkward stage getting up on a stage in front of classmates I was trying to impress and doing improv. It was not pretty. I hated every second of that class. I dreaded being called on to perform and I would stand there shaking as I tried to come up with the most generic scenes so I would not make a complete fool of myself. Sort of to how Michael Scott always commits to being a double agent with a gun during his improv class in The Office, I always committed to petting or walking a dog because everyone likes dogs.  

            Although I have not performed improv sense the dreadful years of middle school, I would like to believe I would be much better at improv today. It took me pretty much all of high school and parts of freshman year to feel fully comfortable in my skin and to let go of constantly trying  not to make myself look ridiculous. Even though I am nowhere near as insecure as I was seven years ago, I still struggle with insecurities every day. I truly admire people like the two SAC students and how they can just let go of their insecurities on stage. That is a skill that takes dedication to develop. Throughout this year we have talked about benefits of humor and I think an important one is the ability to laugh at yourself. People who are so kept up in maintaining an appearance cannot let go and embrace their true selves. For those out there who transitioned from a period of insecurity to an era of unwavering self-assurance, is being confident not the most freeing feeling? We all must learn at one point to just sit down and laugh at natural human stupidity. The first time I learned to laugh at myself, I realized that I am a human, just like every other human on this earth. I also discovered that I do a lot of good things too because I stopped getting so caught up on all of my mistakes. I know we all sort of hated on the superiority theory in class, and for the most part I am not a fan of the theory, but the theory holds some truth. When we laugh at others for silly errors, we must learn to laugh at ourselves as well. I laugh at a guy slipping on ice in a Speedo not only because I am happy that is not me, but also because I realize that I could probably do something just as idiotic. We all have our little flaws and instead of letting them hold us back, we should just laugh and move on. Finding my humor shaped who I am today and allowed me to be a much more confident person. Now if only I could turn back time, and brave the middle school improv class today.