Laughing Stock
One beautiful spring morning, when I was still working in education, I was so completely exhausted that by the time I reached my office door I tried to unlock it with the remote car fob that was still in my hand. I just stood there pressing the “unlock” button, wondering why the dang office door wouldn’t unlock for me. The frustration at not being able to open the door got my adrenaline pumping just enough that about the time I started turning around to go find the janitor it dawned on me that perhaps, just maybe, if I were to use the door key that was just sitting there, waiting, in my pocket, instead of the fob in my hand, I might stand a better chance at getting through that door.
To say I was embarrassed would be an understatement. Luckily, the only people who usually beat me to work were the janitor and the kitchen crew and they were on the opposite side of the school so I knew no one saw. However, I was still feeling flustered, so instead of going into my office, I decided to head over to the break room to see if I could find some caffeine to get me through the morning. As I walked down the quiet hallway, I kept thinking about it and it soon dawned on me how funny the whole thing was and I started laughing at my silly self. I was still laughing when I entered the break room and found the janitor inside. He immediately demanded to know what was so funny this early in the morning, so I told him, and soon he was laughing too. The only problem is that once you tell the janitor, you’ve told the whole school. The first people who saw me right after school began teasing me, but when I laughed all over again, at myself, they joined in and soon started telling their own stories of silly things they had done. Everywhere I went I laughed with others as I heard stories like this and, naturally, my story got better each time I told it, of course!
I could have kept that whole situation under wraps and not told anyone and I most likely would have forgotten the whole thing by the time school started. After all, I was the only one who was there. However, laughing did me more good than the caffeine ever could. And once I let others in on the fun, that laughter became contagious. What started out as a bad day, instead went the opposite way. I certainly didn’t plan that, but I stumbled onto one of the best lessons I’ve ever learned, which is that if you can find the humor in your situation, you can change a bad day into something better. Let others in on the humor and even more people will have a better day. Laughter truly is good medicine, after all, and should be used daily for best results.
Speaking of learning lessons and having a good time doing it, start watching the Augusta Locally Grown website for classes that will begin on September 12th. We hope to see you there!