Braveview: Innocent laughter brings joy to a jaded heart
By Amanda Hickey
Editor

            Every once in a while, a person needs to let loose and just, well, be a kid.
            It isn’t every day that a person gets to wear a crown made out of balloons, or carry around a balloon flower.  On the rare occasion that there is a legitimate opportunity to carry around something made out of a balloon, take it.
            On Pembroke Day, I sat in my normal attire — jeans and a t-shirt – with one additional item: a pink and red balloon crown.  While I sat there, laughing about how inevitably stupid I looked, one thing came to mind: it had been a long time since I laughed about something as innocent as a balloon crown.
            It seems that the older I get, the more it takes to make me laugh.  Jokes that used to make me curl over with laughter barely make me grin.  The days when I could laugh about anything and everything are done.
            On Pembroke Day, however, nothing could make me stop laughing.  Then I had an idea.  Why not get in the dunking booth?
            It took me a while to convince someone to find out if I could.  When he returned with the answer, I laughed even harder.
            I was going to voluntarily have people throw balls with the purpose of making me fall into a big pool of water.
            Each time someone would come up to throw, I would laugh.  It was ridiculous.  Who in their right mind would voluntarily do this — especially if they are not involved in the organization raising money?
            I laughed as I splashed my friends who dunked me.  I laughed as people walked by shaking their heads. I laughed, incessantly.
            Almost an hour later, it may have been less but it certainly felt like an hour, I was cold and I was drenched but I was still laughing.         
            I laughed all day and into the night.  I felt like a kid again.  That was a day I will still be laughing at when I look at the pictures years from now.