Everyone needs a laugh. Everyone needs a point in time to take a minute, scroll through the Book of Faces or travel through the bottomless pit of Pinterest and laugh hysterically at a funny picture, just to escape the reality of today. It’s nearing the Fourth of July, and already, I am receiving emails regarding fall college courses and on-campus event planning for the school year: I literally feel my stress levels rising.
As the saying goes, laughter is the best medicine. According to WebMD.com, laughter and exercise produce similar physiological changes, a 10 to 15 minute fit of laughter can burn around 50 calories. Numerous studies of people experiencing pain found that after they experienced laughter, their pain wasn’t as bothersome.
I honestly can’t deny the fact that I have tried to make myself laugh at the end of a terrible day. I usually always turn to watching Yanis Marshall dance to Beyoncé in his pair of four inch high heels, not because it’s entirely funny, but because I wish I could dance as well as him too.
If you feel as if the summer is slipping through your fingers and time seems to ignore your pleas to slow down, then I am here to help. Today I am feeling generous and below are three of my favorite quotes and pictures that have not only made me chuckle, but have ensued an “oh sh*t” reaction. These pictures/quotes have not only lightened my day, but encouraged me to sit back and think, to find comfort in the humorous distraction that they provide.
Take for example, the quote above. I was just cruising through Pinterest one day, probably looking for an idea for a wedding gift for my younger sister (just admitting my younger sister is getting married before I makes me mad) and I found this. I immediately burst out laughing because a specific memory came to mind. My sister and I had many of these moments with our younger brother back when we were ordering from the kids menu and weren’t getting married before the eldest sibling (see I am very happy yet bitter about this situation).
The specific memory that comes to mind occurred when my sister and I were escorting our brother around the county fair while our parents worked our booth where we promoted the family business, selling and repairing vacuums (the business sucks by the way). We were trying to bribe him to walk around with us because as per parental rules, if we all didn’t go together we couldn’t go. I remember that we eventually convinced him, but then we started arguing on where to walk and how we couldn’t but him a toy at every freaking booth we walked by; so he started to cry and throw a fit. To try to calm him down so he wouldn’t tell our parents we were bossing him around, I remember we took him to see the show rabbits. At the end of the fair that week, I believe my mom bought a family rabbit as per the constant nagging and begging that both my sister and little brother did.
Say it. Go ahead and look in the mirror, make the meanest resting b*tch face that you can and say bubbles. If you don’t end up laughing at yourself with this one, you’re simply not human. Simple as that.
On the right is a long picture that provoked several what the hecks and forehead slaps from me. This was one of those photos that once I read through it, I was cheesing like a fool, and once I read it through again, I was staring blankly at the computer screen questioning my sense of reality. Did you hum the ABCs and then sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star like I did? Did you laugh at the idea that Hershey kisses are glorified chocolate chips? Did you relive the memory of sitting in homeroom during high school filling out those dreaded scantrons for the SAT’s and PSSA’s? I know I did.
These three simple pictures were able to brighten my day for a few seconds of laughter, laughter that lifts your heavy shoulders and distracts your mind, distracts your thoughts from the stress and worries of the day. Everyone needs a moment like this in their day, and I hope I was able to deliver that to you.
Remember to laugh, remember to take a moment to clear your head, to read a few philosoraptor memes and experience the bliss of having your mind blown in a literary sense. Laughter may not increase your spending funds or slow down time, but it can bring a sense of peace back into a world of chaos. Sometimes it comes in handy to just be able to take a minute to remind yourself that today’s issues won’t be issues tomorrow and that every minute is a chance to smile, laugh and enjoy life going on around you.
(Kayla Handy is a Clarion University student contributor to VenangoExtra.com & ClarionExtra.com. Email Kayla at venangoextra@gmail.com.)
