Smiles and Laughs

Why it is easy to laugh

I was sitting in math with a friend and we were discussing some problems we have in our daily lives, yet at the same time our faces showed a totally different attitude than the normal schema the world has set for expression and problems. Our facial expresssions, that of smiles and a laugh mixed in with the conversation. Neither of us noticed how odd this might look, as this is how we normally are, yet another student behind us commented on how we were always smiling no matter what topic we were talking about, and this got me to thinking... Why is it that we always laugh and smile, even in the most dire of conditions?

At first I thought it was to make light of the situation, as has been done many times in the past. You see someone completely distraught, they start talking to you and when they are about to break down, they laugh, a forced pathetic laugh, a laugh to make the situation, in their mind, seem lighter. They don't want to be down and think that a laugh might bring it up.

This does work at times, as is visable when you smile for an extended period of time your mood does change, though, perhaps, because your mind becomes occupied with keeping the smile on and not your worries. Yet, my friend and I had been wearing smiles the whole time, and were still talking of our "woes" and what not, so why could we still laugh and smile?

I think one reason is, we don't take ourselves too seriously. For one thing, we understand that we are still teenagers. With that entails the life of blustering hormones, confusing us every 90 seconds (according to Mr. Jackman), the psychological development of finding self (as Piaget laid out) and learning responsiblity (only a couple of years ago we were kids, now we have more responsiblity yet not enough to be considered adults.) This explains, for the most part, our problems aren't large enough to cause a downpour of tears that turn us into a crumbled mess, so we can see through the ordeal and laugh, knowing it will be over soon and of no real significance.

The problem in math was one of no pressing, stressful importance but we have talked of ones that do matter to the upmost extent, and we still smile. No, we aren't making light of the situation, and we are being serious, yet... we smile because we know we can make it through. This reason for solace and happiness we had to find on our own, people had told us about it, but we had to search after it, and we eventually found it. We have immursed ourselves into our religion. We know the influence it has on us, we have found something to stand on that will never let us down. Through religion we have found faith and hope to carry on, knowing that we will make it out of our ordeals, perhaps with many scrapes and bruises, and maybe even some scars that will turn into knowledge. We feel comfortable saying that we can make it through, we have found a reason to, and it has proven true to aide to us, so why not smile if we know everything is going to be okay?