Project 1 was a good start for me. I first thought this essay was going to be difficult when I heard what the prompt was and I began my usual routine as dreading an English paper. The idea to combine the curiosity journal was genius. The project was mostly done because I had already done the journals. All I needed to do was to combine all three and then write an introduction and a conclusion.
This assignment wasn’t hard but it was challenging. It made me study people's behaviors and how they interact with each other. I have never really stopped and realized how and why people laugh until now. Its really helpful because you learn a great deal. It also made me remember parts of my life that I had forgotten. Not only that but this paper challenged us in finding research through people’s journals and/or articles. I have learned that finding articles and other work really helps your writing. This project was a great start to challenge our minds and get us ready for the next writing assignment.
Andres Argaez
English 101
Hollie Villanueva
dental draft
Laughs
Laughter has always been in not only my life but in everybody’s life. We as humans always laugh but never stop and start to wonder why or how we do this simple action. It’s always been a regular thing to giggle, chuckle and laugh hysterically but what causes you to laugh? Do we laugh differently than with others? Do the people around you affect how and how much you laugh? All these are questions I tended to ignore every single day…until now. Now I have began to look back at my experiences, observations and readings and realized the value of what a simple laugh can hold.
Ever since I was a small child, laughter has always been in my life, especially since my family has always been jokeful and caring. My childhood was actually filled with smiles. I can remember numerous moments of my life which involved endless laughs. For example, there was a time in high school where I was sitting in class taking a test. It was an economy test which I was not exactly an expert in. As I was taking the test I was dripping in sweat and extremely nervous for it seemed difficult to me. Deep down I knew failure was expected and I had no confidence in myself. The class was completely quiet and surprisingly the girl next to me farted extremely loud enough for it to echo around the class. In a matter of seconds, the whole class seemed to be covered in hysterical desk banging and high pitched laughs. I tried my best to hold in the uncontrollable urge to chuckle so the girl next to me wouldn’t get shy but she was also laughing. As I let it all out I could remember the phrase my mother uses “ me agarra el tonto” which means laugh so hard making you feel stupid. Truthfully, that laugh made me feel great and added confidence in myself. After the class had settled down a bit I continued to take the test with a substantial amount of confidence and passed. I have much experience with laughing but I ask what else is involved with laughter?
Recently, I headed onto the cafeteria and Starbucks of Arizona Western College as I observed many students in how they interact while laughing and how laughing affects their social skills. My observations concluded to this. First, the people in the cafeteria were my first objective. I thought it was the perfect spot to seek students chattering and sharing jokes. I noticed that there was always both genders in each group. Women seemed to be laughing more than males did for some reason. Males did laugh much but seemed to laugh more when it was a group of just males. As I kept close watch, I noticed women seem to have more of an obnoxious and louder laugh. Then I headed over to starbucks because I observed that people who barely graduated from high school seem to attend Starbucks. A great deal of “fake laughter” seemed to be present. Fake laughing is when you don’t really think something is funny but laugh anyways to be nice. Flirting was a huge contribution to the fake laughter in Starbucks that day. Curiosity laughs that naturally came out to flirt with a boy/girl to make it seem like they’re interested. I seemed to also find that every other person has a habit of touching another person while laughing, something as simple as gently touching someone's arm. I always get a positive vibe coming from those who laugh more than the people who do not. These are my observations but I also ask myself, why do we laugh? What in our bodies trigger how we laugh?
I have read many articles on how we laugh and what in our bodies trigger us to produce this action. According to Dunbar, laughing involves the muscles from the diaphragm working hard. In the reading “Laughter as Form OF Exercise” written by Gretchen Reynolds, Dunbar explains that laughing for a prolonged time can be a painful experience, hence the term “laugh so much it hurts”. Dunbar is a very experienced scientist and know much about the biological side of laughter. In “Scientists Hint Why Laughter Feels So Good”, Dunbar talks about the physical part of laughing. He says that simple muscular exertions trigger an increase in endorphins which are the brain chemicals that are known for their feel good effect. So Dunbar gives us the biological part of laughing and by looking at the biological side, it can give us a different perspective. Now we can know why it hurts when we laugh and why our jaw hurts as we continue in prolonged laughter.
Now that I’ve looked through my experiences, observations and readings, I can continue life learning more and more of what laughter is. To us it’s just a simple thing that we do which gives us a tremendous feel good feeling. As we start to notice why things happen, we seem to have a higher understanding of the way things work. We have to make the best of every situation and become one. What I enjoy most about laughter is the connection is gives between to people and how it can bring them together in a positive way.
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