Taking Life Less Seriously

     My husband and my son Jack are the resident funny guys in our house. Jack's been telling knock knock jokes since the age of two and often keeps me laughing at even the most desperate moments. I remember the first joke he told:

                              Jack: Knock knock
                              Me: Who's there?
                              Jack: Ken
                              Me: Ken who?
                              Jack: Can I come in? It's freezing out here!

As he said the punchline, he folded his arms and pretended to shiver as our entire dinner table erupted in laughter. That night, I sat at dinner stunned that a two year-old could possess the intelligence to tell a joke in the proper cadence. At his two year-old doctor's visit, he told the pediatrician the same joke. She was so impressed that she made him tell it to all of the nurses. I later learned from my daughter that he was no boy genius-turned-comedian--that he learned that joke from watching Yo Gabba Gabba on t.v. Today his sense of humor has matured, and he still keeps me on my toes, making me smile at the times when I probably need to the most. Jack's sense of humor, like my husband's, often balances my seriousness in our house. It's always been this way. My husband and Jack see the humor in any situation while I will honestly admit that I stress or worry or sometimes take things a little too seriously.

     As serious as I can be sometimes, I suppose I was always taught to have a sense of humor. My grandmother used to sit with us at her kitchen table and say, "Let's laugh." We all would crack up over nothing in particular. Every time I find myself getting too serious about something, I think of the lady who always welcomed laughter into my life.

     Laughter is something I've learned is important to take with me into the classroom. I don't like a quiet classroom, and if my students can laugh and have fun even for a short period of time, I find it to be a successful class. I've learned to develop a thick skin and a sense of humor most days of teaching just to keep up with the teenagers who enter Room 211. I'm far from perfect at this, but I always try to maintain a sense of humor. Years ago when I was a young teacher and track coach, I was frustrated at the athletes I was coaching who seemed to be lazily completing a workout around the track. I usually was the quiet coach who pulled kids aside to get them to do what I wanted, but the lackluster performance in this workout had me all worked up. "Pick up the pace, NOW!" I yelled. Moments later, a group of runners came charging at me, picking me up into the air and running me around the track. I wanted to yell more, but I just had to laugh as I called for them to put me down.

     Last year, upon studying The Crucible by Arthur Miller, I was explaining to my class that the female characters in the play were called Goody in a similar way that we place Mrs. in front of a woman's name today. My class started to affectionately (or at least I think the intention was affectionately done) call me "Goody Pace." It somehow shortened itself to Goody and somehow has been another reminder of the importance of maintaining a sense of humor.

     Just a few days ago, I found this sense of humor tested when a student's parent decorated my house with JMU gear as JMU geared up to play UR in football. While she made the resident funny guys in my house very happy (they are JMU fans), as a Richmond alum, I had a hard time soaking in all of the gold and purple adorning my tree. It was yet another reminder to maintain a sense of humor.

       A sense of humor. I think that's what I want you to think about this month now that you have a month of this school year under your belts. Juniors, you've already been forced to do new things in English class. I've asked you to write differently, begging you to give up the three-pronged thesis for good. I've tested your oral presentation skills by having you do literary presentations. Some of you have created videos using the green screen in our classroom. I've asked you to use technology in different ways and even record your own voices as you try to comment for eight minutes on a poem. These are not easy tasks, and it might take some time before you master them. If you've noticed, I haven't assigned you any long, formal writing assignments yet. I want to give you the tools you need to pursue those--one being a sense of humor.

 Seniors, fall is busy, and by now I'm sure you've realized that the myth of senior year being easy is far from true.You have college essays to write and applications to complete. Yet, you come into Theory of Knowledge every day keeping me on my toes. After all, you were the ones who affectionately gave me my nickname Goody. I've asked you to try a new app, Flipgrid, as a way to reintroduce yourselves to the class as well as discuss psychological experiments.

   

 You wrote letters welcoming new students to Atlee. Yet, what excited me the most was the day I walked into class, and you had set the table, saying "Welcome to our family dinner." You had drawn plates and food on our dry erase tables, showing me that yes, I still need to maintain a sense of humor. Somehow you created an environment that sadly often goes to the wayside in the typical American home these days. The environment you created around that "dinner table" brought back memories of the family dinner when I heard my son's first joke--a true reminder of the need not to take life so seriously.

      And the B4 class who spent over four hours with me during the tornado experience--I probably need to thank you most of all. Every time I wanted to complain, I looked around at what was happening in that classroom. You were making the best of the situation. You were talking and playing games (when we were not ducking and covering, that is). You showed me the importance of remaining calm in a situation. Thank you for showing me a sense of humor was the most necessary item to possess in that classroom that day. Please don't take offense to this, but I hope we won't have any more four hour classes together anytime soon!

     So that's what I encourage you to do this month. Sit down and laugh. Find the humor in the situation no matter what kind of stress you are experiencing. Life's too short to be taken too seriously. I may never be the resident funny guy in my house, but I've learned to let things go sometimes, and I know I'm better for it. Even if it does mean I have to be called "Goody," am picked up around the track, and have some new purple lawn decorations, I'm still laughing. I always will be.