No, it wasn't Elvis I was quoting, but my General Psychology teacher who said this.

Why?

For Laughs, and nothing other than that.

This past week of my life has felt rather negative and clumsy, and in class we seemed to be talking about depressing and realistic ideas, because let's face it: Sometimes life just...stinks. Although I've been surrounded with the realism of the negativity of the world, my teachers never fail to still make the students smile, and we the students should do this for others in life.

In Psychology, we were discussing the Milgram Obedience Experiment that happened in 1963. The purpose of the lab was to test humans on obedient rates, and how far someone would obey a higher authority (read more here ). The lab consisted of two volunteers and the psychologist. In the end, the one man would have knowingly (sort of) killed the other man, because he was told so by the psychologist.

The point of this lab was to see how much a stranger would listen and obey a higher authority role, even if he did not know him. In class, I started to get very upset. I was mad that someone would/will obey an authority figure to the point of killing another human, without putting up a fight. I was mad that this was true, that our country is run by authority and that things will happen in the world that we do not agree with as civilians, yet we will not stand up for what we believe in. We would not stand up for what we think is right because some higher authority told us to. And because that's just how it goes.

And my point to this, is that the class was surrounded with reality, that this was true, and we could've ended class like that. Mad, frustrated, appalled at the truth with nothing to do about it. But we didn't end class like that. Instead, my Psychology teacher made us laugh. He said "They listened because he was a higher authority...Well, class, I am your higher authority and I want you to listen to me. I...am... A 6'4" Hunk-A-Hunk of burning love! Anyone want to fight me on that?" And of course not, nobody fought our 5' balding professor on his claim, we just laughed (him too of course), even when I thought I couldn't...and it made everything seem okay. That even though all of this happened and can happen, that it's okay. Life isn't all bad, and that we're doing pretty okay. And I got that calm feeling, from just a little smile, a little laugh. It's amazing what a smile can bring to us.

So many of these instances happen all the time. The time my band director was scolding us for not playing well and then he said, "Listen I've been there too. I spent 2 years of my life in a small, black box playing orchestral excerpts, and that's why I'm half insane! Do you want that too!?"

Listen

I know life can be stressful, I know it can be annoying and crazy and overwhelming, and I know that life can get really, really depressing. I may be young, but I know these feelings, I know the dark and horrible thoughts and feelings so many people can feel. And I know it can feel like nothing can get better, but it does.

If you laugh, smile, make a joke, make a funny friend, you can experience how much life will change when you just laugh. At first, it might seem impossible to feel better or to see the bright side, but you can. It's hard, especially if you're a broken person, but smiling helps so much. We all know that some of the saddest people are the ones who smile the most...and it'll make a huge difference to others, and yourself.

Did You Know?

That smiling alone can change your mood in a second. It can make us seem more friendly and attractive. It releases endorphin's. It can even lower blood pressure. It can take away some of the depression, piece by piece.

And, it can relieve stress and anger. Have you ever been mad at someone or frustrated and you just laughed out of exhaustion or from being baffled and felt better for a moment? Because I have. Sometimes when I'm arguing with friends or family, I'll just start smiling, maybe even bitterly, but it calms me down, makes me think "Hey, fight nicely, drop this, it's pointless to be so mad at someone you care about, work it out, compromise, people have different opinions."

So don't take life so seriously sometimes, and this is coming from me: Someone who takes life too serious too often. But my teachers, family and friends have taught me that it's okay to be happy. I used to think it was almost shallow to be happy. That people who are happy don't realize how many problems happen in our world, that they don't think realistically about anything...but I was very wrong.

Smiling and being happy doesn't mean that you are oblivious to the negative...it just means that you aren't oblivious to the positive, too.