At the tender age of sixteen — the peak of your teenage years, life hands you a broken heart. It feels like your entire world is flipped upside down. At that age, you don’t understand love or the loss of love. But I think I did. I’ve built my idea of the “perfect” romance through the books I’ve read, scenes in movies, and lyrics sung in songs. And when it fell apart, so did I. Heartbreak, no matter the age, hurts, but that’s life. I believe in the power of laughter even when you’re hurting. Laughing through the pain, the hurt, & the disappointment because when life doesn’t go as planned, humor can be the only thing to pull you out of that darkness. 

                It was a regular Friday night when one “mistake” changed everything. To me, my boyfriend was the perfect guy. Very loving, kind, and caring. But it was all a lie. When I found out what he did, my heart pumped rapidly like I had just finished running a marathon. But all I could do was laugh. Laugh through the pain and take my control back. It was the only thing I could do because I was so puzzled and shocked by his actions. The person I had once loved to joke with became the center of my jokes. Instead of hiding from the pain, I decided to find a way to bear it through humor.  

                Every time I told my story, I would try to make up jokes and laugh about it to mask the real pain I felt. My mother was a big help too. She sat me down and told me that if you give it time, heartbreak can be funny. She told me about all the boyfriends she’d had when she was my age, how she too cried over them, and now, it’s just a funny memory from high school that she always laughs about. Every time we joked and laughed; the sadness I felt slowly went away. I thought maybe heartbreak isn’t the end of the world. It was just a silly chapter of my teenage years that, at the time, didn’t make sense until I saw the bigger picture. 

                When I think back on it, I’m grateful. Not for the boy who broke my heart, but for the people who helped me through that hard time and laughed with me when I thought my world was falling apart. They showed me that humor & laughter can get you through the darkest moments. They taught me that I could still laugh, even when life was not how I wanted it. 

                So, this I believe: You can laugh, even when you’re hurt. Laughter is a way to cope and express your emotions in a good way. So, if you have to laugh all day and every day to get through the hard times, then do it. Life is going to throw hard rocks at you, but the only thing that matters is how you handle them. Face them with a smile, hold your head high, and LAUGH because life is as serious as we make it.