Is Laughter The Best Medicine?

A simple laugh can cure any cold, a small smile could spark a friendship but Is it nature’s best medicine? because some may think differently.

On a cold rainy day when I was curled up in a ball in my Winnie the Pooh blanket while my nose was running like it was flooded, my dad came in and asked “ Bailee, would you like to hear a joke?” and I couldn’t say no. He would always do the same, old, boring walking down the stairs joke behind the couch and the first time I guess it was funny but after a while it just got plain annoying… I know, he’s not another Jim Carrey, but at least the first couple of times it made me happy. Now that I am older I have a different perspective on humor, laughter and smiles, and I have more of a scientific view. I was able to get a younger point of view from a student “When I see my friends happy, it makes me happy too. I always want to be happy so everyone else will be too.

“I love people who make me laugh, I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person”, said Audrey Hepburn, a woman whose life was a TV show, nothing in her life private. She was an actress, she was in all the movies back in her day, living the life of her dreams, but in her whole life her favorite thing was to laugh, it made her life brighter.

In our century, laughter has disappeared into thin air, with all these movies and social media, everyone has forgotten what laughter really means and what it can do to someone, For me, the quote of the century is “Whatever, What's the point?” So what is the real importance of laughter and what is it’s power in the world?

Laughter in my eyes hasn’t disappeared, not completely but slowly burning out, like a lit candle in a blizzard. All of this new technology has been disrupting what life really was. Back in the day when everyone seemed down, jokes, music and love brought them back to happiness, but now it’s just watching Youtube videos or Tweeting that would make us at least have half a smile. So the real question is Where did it go? The easiest way to put it would be that it has gone somewhere it cannot be retrieved.

When you were younger you must have heard from your Preschool teachers or on Barney “Laughter is the best medicine” right? Well, is it really Or was that just a phrase that tries to convince kids to smile more instead of being anti-social? So, Where did the laughter go? Moving into the 21st century the laughter in the world has slowly disappeared like water on the fire.

I have discovered that we have moved into the 'Virtual age', We are starting to communicate over technology and not face to face, They are not capable to feel the full happiness as we do face to face. It is a scientific fact that laughter or other kind of humor is more contagious than a cold, sneeze or flu. We laugh around 400 times a day as children and adults laugh 15 times a day, don’t you think we need to change that ? Scientifically laughter is truly the best medicine, according to researchers who have studied on human health and this research has proven that, Laughter makes your body stronger to fight diseases, can lower your blood pressure, Increase your energy level, help us socialise better and healthier exercise

My family has always taught me that a smile could make your life better, we need to reconnect with the world and stop being hypnotised by the screens that overrule our communication.…

By Bailee

Danielle Miller

“Not all is well in a teenage girl world”, “Danielle Miller approaches adolescent girl realities, challenges and opportunities as if she was going back to what she felt as a young girl, Her own personal pain”. Building from her past Danielle Miller empowers women to make them feel better about themselves. She speaks for the women who don’t believe in themselves.

When Danielle was a small girl, boiling hot oil was poured on her, like thousands and thousands of of bees stinging her one by one, leaving a permanent scar on her right arm which she tried to cover up with her old socks. The scar that had been left on her arm looked horrible and gruesome, she was teased all throughout school about her spiderweb-like arm, everywhere she turned there was a group of kids laughing at her or staring at her like she was in a zoo, she would come home crying and believing what the other kids were saying about her.

Once she finished school, Danielle Miller couldn’t take what those stupid kids were saying about her and she knew in herself that there are some children like her that needed to be saved, and Danielle knew she would be the one to save them, She took a stand and devoted her career to support and give women the courage that they needed, she spoke for all the women who didn’t believe in their beauty.

When she came to Singapore after traveling far and wide to see millions of girls, she came to visit UWCSEA East which was one of many schools she went to talk to too. The girls adored her and called her “Gorgeous”, they acted like she was there second mother. After all the fun and games that she played with the girls everything toned down and became serious, She told the girls to close their eyes and answer honestly 2 questions that she answered when she was a child and expected a completely different answer to the girls. First was “Who thinks they are beautiful ?” . . . No Hands were raised, Then she asked “ Who compares themselves to other girls?” and hands shot up like 1000 fireworks.

She told them “ Girls you don’t have to be pretty to be a good person or for people to like you.... They care about what’s inside of you not based on looks... So just be you”

This is a lesson that these girls will never forget

By Bailee