Why I Started Everything Fun

I wanted to learn how to have more fun

I was the kid who would always get other people to laugh. I often got in trouble for it. Still, I remained undeterred. While attending St. Patrick School, I received eleven disciplinary slips for disturbing class and making students around me laugh. My teacher, Mr. Mazur, was at his wits’ end. Sometimes, though, I could tell that he wanted to laugh with me, but his position constrained him. He was supposed to keep control of the class.

During our eighth-grade graduation ceremony, Mr. Mazur hugged me and said something about “missing me.” I assumed he was being sarcastic. Ironically, he had a daughter and named her Hollie, and I became a teacher. I think we ended up in each other’s path for a reason.

I wanted to make people laugh because I knew it would make them feel good. However, in that class and life in general, the message that I repeatedly learned is that fun, laughter, and feeling good were inappropriate. Statements like “grow up,” “be responsible,” and “quit kidding around” sent the message that fun is for children and misery is for adults. It made me want to hold on to my youth.

I tried to carry on the spirit of fun throughout my life, but misery slowly started creeping in when I was thirty years old. I worked three jobs and paid my way through graduate school while paying a mortgage and maintaining an adult life. I was working so hard for a life that I thought would be better somehow.

Don’t get me wrong, most of my life has been fantastic. Even when faced with serious challenges, I always found a way to land on my feet. I’ve been fortunate to have done some incredible stuff like play guitar in great rocking bands, travel the world as a flight attendant, work as a professor at top universities, and own a successful business with my husband of nearly twenty years.

On the outside, people always told me I was lucky. They never understood how hard I worked for all of those things. While much of the work was a labor of love, it was countless hours of hard, hard work. Life started to wear on me somewhere along the way, probably due to severe sleep deprivation and some serious challenges.

After selling our business and retiring at 46, we left beautiful Colorado for Ohio to be close to our families. Our lives had gotten pretty hectic with our business, so we looked forward to a slower pace and spending time with our families as they faced various health challenges. I was tired, but I felt optimistic that our new life would be enjoyable.

We moved into a roughly finished house that my father-in-law started twenty or more years ago. We put our mattress on the concrete floor and slowly started building around us — walls, electrical, plumbing, etc. Thankfully, my husband is a contractor by trade. I became his trusty handy maiden. It was fun.

I took six months away from our house project to finish a book I had roughly started before the move, which I completed and published in 2018. Then I returned to help finish the house and get situated in our new life.

We had done all that we had set out to do, which was exciting, but the buildup to the moment of completion left us wondering, “What now?” I think many of us busy ourselves to prevent thinking, “What now?”

I did many things to remedy the darkness that was creeping in — joined a writing group, volunteered at a local animal shelter, began writing for Medium and other publications, and got involved with music a bit more — all of which were meaningful and enjoyable.

Then Covid-19 hit, and we isolated. Many of my enjoyable activities ceased. We lost some beautiful friends and family members along the way, which was hard. I felt guilty for even wanting life to be fun again. Still, I think our loved ones who have passed would like us to have fun again.

So, here I am, trying to find my way back to a greater sense of fun, joy, wonder, curiosity, growth, play, and other means to feel positive emotions. That’s why I decided to create a publication, Everything Fun, to learn how to experience more fun. Perhaps, through our shared experiences, we can all bring a bit more joy, fun, and laughter into each other’s lives.

When I talk about fun, I’m eager to learn about all varieties that exist. Sometimes, simple little things like conversations with interesting people or an everyday dog walk can increase our daily fun. Other times, fun takes the form of wild adventures, strange coincidences, or psychic encounters. Let’s hear about them all!

In addition to recounting fun encounters, I’m also interested in instructional and philosophical approaches to fun. For example, there are theories of flow, play, creativity, among other topics, that can help us conceptualize or enact more joy in our lives. Let’s hear about these, too.

If we’ve been alive for even a couple of decades, we’ve probably had some dents put in our fun bubbles. Let’s work together to find pathways to greater joy.

I’m tagging many people I have followed over the years and some I’ve come to know recently — many of whom have helped make my days more festive. I hope you will join me on this journey. Let us see where it can take us.

In alphabetical order (sort of), not order of importance:

Alberto García 🚀🚀🚀 Ankit Priyadarshi Aurora Eliam, CMP Barb Dalton Bashar Salame Bill Abbate Bingz Huang Bobby Powers B.R. Shenoy Bruce Noll Cheryll MV David Rudder Danielle Hestand David Perlmutter Denise Darby Donnette Anglin Esther George Filiz Özer Jan Sebastian Jaylee Reign Jen Gippel PhD JoAnn Ryan John C. Davis Jodie Helm K. Barrett Kevin Jahleel Ishimwe Krystal Mossbarger Kris Bedenian Kristine Laco Liberty Forrest, Author Lori Lamothe Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) Mary Chang Story Writer Michael Burg, MD (AKA Medium Michael Burg) Mukundarajan V N Neha Sandhir S Pene Hodge Penofgold pockett dessert Raine Lore Raza Hussain, MD Rebecca Romanelli Rob Janicke Shereen Bingham Robin Le Roy-Kyle Rui Alves R. Rangan PhD ScienceDuuude Srini Stacy Johnson Stuart Englander Terry Mansfield Thief Thomas Plummer Tim Anderson Uwem Daniels Younes Henni, PhD Vishnu*s Virtues VOICES OF THE LOST William J Spirdione Zahra Ali

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