I laughed less in 2011 than in previous years. It was shock and awe more than jokes and humor. And that felt lonely.
I only realized this recently when I skyped with my brothers in Kentucky. They made me laugh. I lived with them for years, so we had years of inside jokes built up. Some of the jokes even had jokes inside them.
Our jokes weren’t like, “What do you get when you cross a strawberry and a marshmallow?” No, the jokes were more like one-liners from movies or strokes of irony from real life. We enjoyed that kind of humor.
Even friends I knew in America built up piles of jokes, just because we’d hung out so much and shared so many of the same experiences.
In Korea, I’ve gotten close to a few friends: David, Andy, Loren, Daniel, Jihye, Lance, Branden, another David, and maybe a couple others. But they move away, get different jobs, or end up just not hanging out as much for whatever reason. Korea’s like that for foreigners.
I miss laughing really hard. I haven’t done that as much lately. And it makes me feel lonely because I miss that connection.
