Laughter is Definitely The Best Medicine

Sophomore year was the start of what I thought was going to be a promising year, and it all started with me and my friend Mason. Although now we are really good friends in fact, I would consider him one of my best friends, things with this six-foot goofball did not start out that way. Mason and I had always been in the same friend group, but we had never really socialized. When we did we had two talking points, Sports, and our mutual friend Anthony, but he isn’t really a part of this story.

The first day of school, my friends, and I were very eager to compare schedules and see who had what classes together. I had a few classes with people here and there, but what I was most focused on was the first period that day, my red day period one geometry class. Which I came to find out I had Mason in and that was it. Still excited because I had a friend in that class me and mason when the bell rang headed to Ms. Finn’s room.

Here is where the combination of probably a little too much laughter in some ways and not enough in others starts. Geometry in the beginning was not all that hard, but it slowly got harder. Mason and I laughed a ton and very quickly he became one of my best friends through that class so in a way the most awful class ever I should also thank. The semester got harder and I got more and more frustrated. I failed test after test and one project after another which to me was no laughing matter I took math very seriously so, when I fell short I got mad and could not just sit there and laugh about my mistakes. Mason and I would still laugh a ton when it came to non math related things and we would have a ton of fun while in class, but me struggling was just something I could not laugh at. Ms. Finn was a great teacher, and she did her best to help me fix my mistakes. She tried multiple different ways to teach me how to do the work, I just would not accept the help because I was too stubborn. Many times I told myself “Why are you struggling with this, math always comes so easy to you. Get your head in the game”. Sadly, I never got geometry and still don’t to this day. My own shortcomings were very hard for me to laugh at and in a way that made things worse. The lack of haha I made a dumb mistakes and no oh lol that was dumb of me’s made everything harder. I was just mad at myself and to me this was no laughing matter. Geometry first and second semester ended and due to a credit recovery I passed the first semester, but sadly summer school was still in my future for the second semester that I had failed.

Summer school I was joined by Anthony and Mason. We had a ton of fun, but that fun was not geometry related at all. Mr. Crocker the chemistry teacher kept us on track to pass everything we needed to but sometimes the three of us were a handful. Two tests, some blank staring off into space, and a math project later I was done, I was finally done the worst math experience of my life. If I remember correctly I literally jumped up and yelled “YES” at the top of my lungs.

Needless to say Laughter and the lack of laughter played a big part in my journey through geometry, but the lack of laughter played a much bigger role in the struggle itself. My inability to laugh off my failures because I couldn’t at the time accept that there was one aspect of math that I was not good at. I believe was the largest factor in why I came up short. If I had been able to accept my hardships and laugh them off, I would have been less stubborn, and probably been more willing to stay and get the help I needed. Since geometry that class helped me learn that even though I might be great at something most of the time sometimes I fall short. When that happens I’ve learned pick myself up, laugh it off, and ask for a little bit of help when needed. Through geometry I learned that when you laugh in both good and bad, hard or easy times that it’s much more enjoyable. People say that laughter is the best medicine and honestly at one point I probably would have laughed in their face and told them they are right I felt so much better now, but because of my experience, I finally see what they mean. People say that laughter is the best medicine I now fully agree with them, do you?

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