Laughing Out Loud

When I was a kid, I never really liked acting in front of other people, including in public, even if it was a small roleplay. I would rarely act in front of my siblings, but it was only for comical reasons. I always thought it was hilarious to act out situations with actions about serious things, but sometimes I would get out of hand, so it was never really a good idea. Throughout my life, I have gotten way better at reading situations, so I know better as whether or not if it was okay to joke about certain situations. I also had a hard time laughing, since I was always told my laugh was always very awkward and annoying, so I would always try not to laugh that much. Even so, that was the past. I don’t have the same problems I do now, but the following story reflects on when I was able to laugh even when it was hard to.

This story takes place when I’m in my freshman year of high school. I was not doing so well in school, since I always had trouble talking to people my age. I usually stayed around with my siblings and their friends, but I at some point got myself to make a few friends, but that’s not at this point of the story. So anyways, it was getting towards the end of the year, and my sister, Sarita got a new project for her history class, and it was to make video that talked about World War 1 and present it to her whole class. She had to include some information in the video, like when World War 1 started and ended, American casualties, etc. My sister had asked a few friends to help, which they agreed. She and her friends decided that it would make better if they had some light humor in it to make it entertaining, so they asked me if I would help with it. At first, I was really nervous that they asked me, of all people! However, I did say that I would only help them make the video, never be in it. I did start out that way, but they needed someone to play several other parts, like a general, a soldier, and even the narrator. I ended up covering those parts, and I got my younger siblings included in the video. They played as soldiers. We ended up finishing the video, but I was a little nervous to hear that other people were going to be watching it. When the day came, someone came to my study hall and asked if I would go to the History room. I figured out quickly that I was invited to watch the video with my sister and her classmates. I felt like I was frozen, with my eyes wide open, I did not want to go through it all again with being laughed at, but I ended up going anyway. When I got in there, they started watching with everyone else. At first, everyone was quiet, and I thought that the video was a huge failure. I started to shiver a little, and even had my heart racing too, but it was all for nothing. The whole class bursted out laughing, and I did too. It was hilarious! Although, everyone heard me laugh too. With everyone’s attention at me, I thought it was over. I almost thought someone was going to make a joke about me, so I turned away. Of course, some of the class was talking about me. it did bother me, but I knew that my laugh was really odd compared to other people’s. To my surprise, one of my sister’s classmates told me my laugh was hysterical. That was not what I was expecting to hear, so I laughed out loud. I did not know whether that was supposed to be derogatory or not, but I learned not to take it personally. I learned from this experience. This experience made me feel a lot better about myself. Currently, I don’t care what people think about me, because that’s what I learned from watching that video with the class. I have no regrets about what happened.