Laughing When You Probably Shouldn’t

In life, there are many times when it is okay to laugh at things, but also there are definitely times where you should not be laughing or when people will get mad at you for laughing. There are plenty of times that the expectation is for you to act seriously, not silly. Take for example my experience with this matter. So the story goes like this: It was late on a Friday night and I was on a bus along with the rest of my teammates from the Oak Hill varsity football team. The bus was dead silent as we left the game. We had just lost a game that we definitely should have won and our coaches were not impressed with the way we finished the game. We were dominating in the first half of the game but when we came out after halftime we did not carry the same intensity we had in the first half into the second half. When our opponent scored once we got down on ourselves. It was as if we let all the air out of our belief in ourselves and our intensity and we let them come back and win. We lost our faith in ourselves. Needless to say our coach was pretty mad at us for blowing the game, especially because we definitely should have won and we kind of just gave up. Coach knew we were way better players with more talent and ability then we just showed on that football field. So when we were on the bus leaving the game, we were all dead silent for about half of the bus ride home. Then some kids started joking with each other and fooling around. Then the foolishness caught on like wildfire and started spreading through the bus and soon we were all fooling around and laughing. Our coach got really mad at us and said that we did not care that we had just lost because we were fooling around and laughing He said that we could not possibly care about the game because none of us were upset about having just lost a game that we could have easily won. He was disappointed that we lost, but probably more disappointed because we lost faith in ourselves and our teammates. Looking back, I now realize it was not the sting of the loss that had Coach fired up, but more of the disappointment because we did not try our hardest. We gave up too early and let our opponent run all over us and take the win from us. Our laughter probably made it seem to Coach in that moment that we did not care, but I do not think that was true. I mean there were definitely some kids who did not care but I think that most of us were pretty upset about losing when we could have easily won. I know that I speak for myself and plenty of my other teammates that we live, eat, sleep and breathe football so losing is a hard pill to swallow. We have practiced countless hours, days and weeks through sweat, frustration and sometimes puke so that we can be victorious. The other option is never something the players who are serious about the game ever want to think about or dwell upon. The only reason why we were fooling around is because we were upset and we did not really want to think about the game and laughing was helping us to forget about how upset we were about losing. So, all in all, I would say that laughter is very good at helping you to get over something. No matter how upset you are about something you should be able to look back at it and be able to find the humor in and laugh at yourself, learn a lesson about what you could have done differently, and then be able to move on from it.

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