What Makes You Laugh?

Vitality Stories

Teri Case

In the light of day

Two weeks ago in the middle of the night, I was lying wide awake in bed. I was too excited–too happy–to sleep. Hours before, unexpected donations for the Tiger Drive Scholarship had started rolling in and the kindness of friends and strangers, and the idea that we might be able to help not one but TWO students, had my head spinning.

It was a warm night so our bedroom window was cracked and the blinds pulled. Light from the street lamps poured through the window and created a shadow on the wall next to my bed. I’d never seen the shadow before and I couldn’t figure out the source without moving around and waking up my boyfriend. I was fascinated because the shadow looked like two globes with two people–two people on top of their respective worlds. Loosely translated in my midnight madness, it was a sign that our decision to use the scholarship money to help two students was the right choice. The shadow, which would periodically turn shades of green or red thanks to the traffic light nearby, lulled me to sleep.

When I woke in the morning, I ran to the window.

I laughed. Hard.

What makes you laugh

Sometimes our perspective changes between night and day, and sometimes life can be messy or challenging–as it is in the case of some of our scholarship applicants–but the messiness and the struggles we confront are sometimes rewarded when we least expect it. So yeah, I still think the shadow was a sign, but I also think it’s worth a laugh.

As always, thanks for joining me here today and for being you. I hope you had a laugh.

Teri