Laugh at yourself

When I was in graduate school back in Beijing China, there was a rule that lights would be turned off at a certain hour during the night so that no one would stay in the labs, classrooms and buildings. The buildings would become completely DARK. Once the lights were off, there was no way to turn them on until a certain time the next morning. Normally people would be smart enough to leave before the lights were extinguished to avoid walking in the dark. Let me remind you, this was before everyone owned a cellphone with a flashlight built in.

One night, I was so focused on my work I forgot to leave before the lights were turned off. Well, I wasn’t the only one. A young professor was also working late. We had to find our way going down multiple flights of stairs by touching the walls and feeling our movement. I, a young graduate student, was wearing a pair of high heels. For those of you who wear high heels, you know how difficult and uncomfortable it is to walk stairs even during perfect lighting. I missed a step! The heel on my right shoe broke off. I had to finish the remaining stairs with only one heel on.

Walking the stairs was not the hardest part. I needed to walk a half mile back to my dorm. The ground was not suitable to walk barefoot. While I was limping through the night, I laughed at myself. I told the professor who was empathetically and helplessly walking with me,
“It would be even if I can break off the heel from the other shoe! 😂“ I tried and failed, and kept walking.
Then I turned to the professor and said,
“Hey, it’s not that bad, I am working on strengthening my calf muscle! 😂”

The professor said something to me that I would never forget. “You are going to go far in life. Not many people can laugh at themselves under such circumstances. Keep doing that…”

When was the last time you dared to laugh at yourself?

#resilience #life