The best things in life!

It makes my day when i came across this piece of wrtting: here it goes:

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: “That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!” The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: “The driver just insulted me!” The man says: “You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you.” After reading that, did you feel a sudden surge to the sky, a dosage of sunshine and finally, the inevitable bursting laughter? No, I did not mistakenly post this article to Reader’s Digest for the joke segment. Indeed, one of the best things in life is none other than laughter.

Since we were adorable cuddly babies, the windows of joy and laughter fling widely open to welcome the many humorous experiences in life. Whether if it’s a peek-a-boo from our fathers or smearing tomato sauce on the dining table, there is always the majestic melodies and beautiful chorus of laughter that spreads like a charming song to the entire family. At the notorious age when we were clowns at primary school, laughter was served 24 hours a day. We laugh when Spongebob Squarepants foolishly pulls down his boxers on television. We laugh when we make our mothers scream to the top of their lungs at the sight of shattered vases. We laugh when we play Power Rangers with balloon swords with the kids next door. Somehow, as children, we are oblivious to the dark gloomy clouds that shade the soul but astonishingly embrace the sunshine rays, colourful rainbows and clear blue sky in life. When life seems devoid of life like a dry well, it is up to us to open the floodgates of happiness, just like the children we used to be. Like Michael Pritchard said “You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing.”



I could swear that the best days of my life are those when I was at school. School was like a circus with its own breed of humour, an endless pit of the wackiest jokes and an ocean wide of laughable experiences. I fondly remember playing wrestling, hide and seek and the coolest card games with the best of friends, always with abundant bellows of laughter. We quenched our thirst of juicy gossips on teachers, girls, celebrities, movies and practically everything under the sun, always with deafening giggles and clenched stomachs. When seniors splashed icy cold water and drew our faces like cartoon characters with markers, even the most passive of students find it impossible to not carve the smiles of angles. When we took part in school plays or dramas, we can’t avoid a deafening hall and saliva drooling from wide open mouths when John puts on coconuts and twiddles his long fake hair. Even when we jumped like zoo monkeys when lashed at the buttocks by the discipline master, there was always still room for tonnes of teases, jokes and laughter for all to share.



Now, when you have the liberty of looking back at the joke above without exploding like you just watched a Stephen Chow movie, there is another important value which is portrayed by the mother. The love for our family, friends and others; now that is also one of the best things in life ever. As Robert Frost cleverly puts “Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” It is that warm blanket of comfort we seek from others to architect a life that is concretely meaningful and solidly wonderful. The first people I would like to dedicate my love to are my parents. Who were the ones that taught you to write like J.K. Rowling, speak like Barack Obama and sing like Mariah Carey? Who were the ones who became Mother Theresa to passionately comfort you when you were sick? Who drew swords like Alexander the Great to protect you from the arsenals of harm and armies of danger? They mean the world to me and played a crucial role in moulding, twisting and shaping a product as brilliant as me today. Yes, they can sometimes nag till the cows come home or rule me like dictators with an iron fist, but at the deepest trenches of their heart, I know they sincerely love me.

Like anyone out there, the world transforms into a roller coaster of fun and excitement when we hang out with our friends. They were the ones that taught me how to solve brain-numbing algebra questions and chalk up essays as thick as phone directories in school. They were the ones that accompany you to the movies and chat with you at the coffee stall till past midnight. They were the ones that spread the seeds of happiness and love when visiting you during Chinese New Year festivals. They were the ones that willingly shared our problems and offered a shoulder to cry on. You may call that friendship, but to me, that are the rubies and diamonds of love that should be locked into a treasure chest, a precious thing we should safeguard. Without the love of friends, life would be black and white without the kaleidoscope of colours, cheers and thrills which are the keys to the door of a rich and fulfilling life.



In a nutshell, the best things in life are truly just the simple flavourful acts in life that are right in front of us to savour. To laugh when a joke is heard or to hug your loved ones: those are already the best things in life anyone can dream of and far outweighs any other factors in our lives. When there is laughter, there is always love and when there is love, there is always laughter. I am only seventeen and still have a long life ahead of me and dreams for me to achieve. But to look back in life and to rekindle the fondest of memories, it is always the ones with love and laughter that stand head and heels above the rest. As what E.E. Cummings said : “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter” Therefore, the next time you wake up from bed, brush your teeth, wash your face, greet your family, eat your breakfast and head to work with a radiant smile on your face with blessings count. Just don’t have a memory of a goldfish diagnosed with Alzheimer’s by remembering to change your pyjamas.