The Infamous Free Throw

Uncontrollable Laughter Occasion Two:

            This occasion took place one weekend I had gone home to visit my family freshman year of college. My sister, Haley, who was twelve at the time, had a recreational basketball game on that Saturday. I was so excited to see her play because being four hours away from home made me miss a lot. However, right before the game, my Mom informed me that her team was absolutely the worst team she had ever seen. She also pointed out that my brother’s team, whose eight years old, by the way, could destroy my sister’s team. Unfortunately, she had been randomly selected to play on a team of people who had never played before, but she had been playing for three years by that point. Don’t worry. It gets better.

            We show up to the game, and there was one particular thing that stood out to me. Even though Haley’s team was awful, they thought they were all that in a bag of chips. As the game started, the opposing team scored almost every time they got the ball. Meanwhile, my sister’s team had a total of four points. Then, one of her teammates, the coach’s daughter (the cockiest of them all), had been fouled and went to the free throw line to shoot. She dribbled a couple times before she shot like all basketball players. The entire gym was dead silent because this game just hurt to watch because my sister’s team was so awful. My family was sitting behind one of the opposing team’s player’s family. One of their family members was quite old and hard of hearing. When our player threw (more like chunked) her shot it immediately bounced off the backboard and back directly to her. The ball never even touched the rim whatsoever. That is how hard she just chunked the ball up there.

            All of a sudden, the man hard of hearing, in front of us, yelled, “GEEEEEEZZZZ!” Just imagine this dead silent gym and then this man yelling that because of how bad the throw was. As a result, my family starts cracking up, but not out loud. We had to contain our laughter to not be rude. All of our faces began to turn red, our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard, and by the time we stopped laughing we could barely breathe. So, from that point on, our family will randomly shout that and without hesitation our family bursts out into hysterical laughter. It is just amazing to me how my family can find the little joys in things like that. It may make us weird, but we could care less.

The Chill Stage

Conversation Four:

            The fourth time we met was at McAlister’s for dinner. Originally, I wanted to go to Salsa Limon; however, both Cindy and Frances did not want to go there because they do not like Mexican food. My jaw dropped when they said that because Mexican food is the only type of food that I could eat for every lunch/dinner and not get tired of it. Then again, I am not a huge fan of Asian food, so I guess I could let them not liking Mexican food slide.

            The topic of conversation for that night was of how I get when I have consumed alcohol (only with my family, of course). We all kind of talked about how we get when we drink alcohol, but for some reason they focused on how I react to it. Elle liked to point out that when I have a drink that I begin to smile very big. Not like just a regular smile of simple happiness, but a smile that literally takes up my entire face because I am smiling so hard. Honestly, it is quite embarrassing. I proceeded to show them this legendary picture that depicts my Mom and me hugging and I was in a happy place, and my face clearly displayed that. That broke out into laughter, but then brought it back a little in fear of making me feel bad. However, I told them they could laugh; it is quite funny looking.

            From then on, every time that I smiled, Cindy, especially, liked to point out that my smile was on the verge, every so often, of being close to my intoxicated smile. All I thought was that I must smile a lot more than I realize sometimes. Laughter and happiness is the best feeling and the world, and if I can make other people happy or laugh I would consider that an accomplishment. Even though I may not always understand what either Cindy or Frances are saying, at least I know what their laughter means. After this dinner, I started to realize the meaning behind this project – laughter is everywhere.

Salt Water

Uncontrollable Laughter Occasion One:

            It was the Monday before Thanksgiving break when my roommate, Caroline, and I got an entire restaurant to laugh. Caroline, my friend, Bryan, and I were finally relaxing after all of the stress most of our professors were putting on us, like they always do, right before any holiday. We all decided to go to Fuzzy’s at twelve for no apparent reason other than I just really wanted chips and queso. All of us had gotten our food and were all so hungry we were not even talking because we were too busy eating as much as possible as fast as we could. Then, all of a sudden Caroline scoots over in the booth and whispers to me “I have been pouring salt in Bryan’s drink for the past couple of minutes and he has not noticed. Help me distract him.”

            I burst out laughing because how was it possibly for him to not taste all the salt she was putting in to his drink. I wanted to see it actually happen in person, so I said, “Bryan look at those shorts. Would you ever wear those?” Of course I did not listen to the answer; I was too focused on Caroline taking the salt shaker and shaking salt into his water. By the way, it was not like there was a lot of water in the cup to where the salt would not be as recognizable. He had maybe one-fourth of those cheap plastic cups filled. Then, he decided to call one of my other roommates. After he got off the phone, by that time the surrounding tables had caught on to what Caroline and I were doing, and were all staring. Bryan asked, “Was I talking on the phone too loudly? Everyone is looking at me.” How in the world could he notice that people were staring at him, but could not figure out, for the life of him, that his drink had a disproportionate amount of salt in it?

Caroline kept saying, “Bryan you are really dehydrated. You need to drink the rest of your water, then we can leave.” Bryan chugged the little bit of water he had left. He then exclaimed, “You guys have been putting stuff into my drink.” He said it loudly enough to where the tables around us found out that he knew. Consequently, Caroline, the restaurant, and I all burst out into laughter. My stomach started to hurt because of all the laughter I had been trying to hold in the entire time. The rupture of laughter in the restaurant was the weirdest, but coolest feeling knowing we were responsible for someone’s hysterical laugh that night.

The Content Stage

Conversation Three:

            The third meeting was a struggle, to say the least. We planned to meet twice before it actually happened. The first time, we planned to meet for dinner, like usual, on Thursday; however, I had an emergency and had to go home. That was strike one. Then, we all planned to get dinner the following Thursday at BLUU 2. Unfortunately, Elle and I went to BLUU 2 and Cindy and Frances went to market square. They thought we were referring to the second floor of the BLUU, which would be market square. That was strike two. I was just getting frustrated at that point, but then we finally agreed on getting coffee at Union Grounds one day before I had class.

            That afternoon, I had fallen asleep, on accident, after my other class that ended at 3:20. I had not set an alarm or anything because I was not planning on falling asleep. At four, I woke up in a complete panic because that is when I was supposed to already be at Union Grounds. I ran, literally, from my room to Union Grounds. I got there and they said not to worry about being a couple minutes late. Finally, when I got settled sitting down we started talking about the tree lighting happening that night. I came to find out that this would be the first time they would go. I told them that it is so extravagant, but so amazing at the same time. They mentioned that Christmas was not as big of a deal in China. They said that they celebrated it, but that it was just for fun (there were no breaks from school/work). On a completely different subject, later Elle was telling a story about her Asian friend named Tu. During her story she said, “Tu did that too.” Elle and I started to laugh because of the pun. With our class in mind, I wondered for a split second if Cindy and Frances would laugh as well; since, understanding a language is key to catching on to the pun. Surprisingly, they laughed as well, and I do not think it was just because Elle and I were laughing. As a result, I felt more comfortable talking with them the rest of the time, compared to usual. If they understood that joke, then I would not have to be super careful of not saying words that I may have thought they would not understand.

            This meeting really helped develop a sense of friendship with them. We laughed a lot. This time it was not Elle and me laughing at things, and Frances and Cindy laughing at other things, like before. I think that is why I enjoyed this meeting so much. Laughter always makes the atmosphere more enjoyable.

Learning to Have Confidence

Learning Experience One:

I have learned this semester that I need to be proud of what I have accomplished. In the past year, I applied for Neeley Fellows (business honors of sorts) and for Delta Sigma Pi (professional business fraternity). Neither of those organizations accepted me into their program. I was not being able to understand what I had done wrong. Was it that my interview did not go well in their eyes? Was it that my cover letter was not to par? Was my résumé not on the level they wanted? As a result of self-doubt, I became quite discouraged wondering why I was working so hard just for it to end in continued rejection.

Then, I was granted the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to hand in my résumé and cover letter to ConocoPhillips. It was the first place I was applying for an internship and it was in Houston, my hometown. This opportunity was a perfect fit for this coming summer. Unfortunately, there are only eight spots for finance and accounting interns in Houston, so the competition for those spots is steep. Despite the immense competition, I was emailed, within an hour of handing in my résumé and cover letter, from the internship coordinator in regards to setting up an interview. I was ecstatic and could not believe that they had gotten back to me so quickly. That next Monday, I had my phone interview and I thought it went really well. I immediately called my parents to tell them how it went, when, in the middle of our conversation, I had another incoming call. I recognized the number as the lady who I had just interviewed with. I assumed that she just needed a few more pieces of information from me. Surprisingly, that was not the case.

I answered the phone and she said, “We would like to offer you an internship in Houston this summer.” My immediate response was, “Are you serious?” That was not probably the most professional response, but I was in shock that she was calling me about getting it literally ten minutes after the interview had finished. I had never heard of someone getting the job that quickly before. Later, I came to find out that when I had applied there was only one spot left in the program and they had already narrowed down the candidates to one other girl. However, they still gave me a chance and according to the internship coordinator I blew the other girl out of the water with my résumé.

That experience made me realize that all my hard work does pay off and that I just need to be patient. Even though I did not get into Neeley Fellows or Delta Sigma Pi, I got accepted when it really counted in the real world. 

The Worrisome Stage

Conversation Two:

For this second meeting I was very excited until the moment I got an email from Frances saying, I lie not, “How are you going?” I later found out that she was ultimately if our plans were still on for that evening. When we first met, she did not talk all that much out of the four of us, and I thought that was just because she was reserved. The email I received proved otherwise. It was actually because her English was not the strongest which worried me because I did not know how dinner would go. The first time we met, we mostly talked about the basic question about school, family, friends, etc. However, this second time I had no idea what we would talk about. On top of that, I extremely awkward when it comes to making new friends. I am not sure Frances even considered me as a friend at that point.

As dinner approached, it was pouring rain outside. I thought to myself, this is a great start, considering my worries already coming into this. Elle and I got there on time and ordered our food and decided to eat because they did not show up until twenty-five minutes past what we had agreed on. Something that I noticed was strange was that they both decided to not eat their food even though we sat there and conversed for a bit. I do not know if they did that because Elle and I had already eaten and that, in their culture, they did not eat in front of people if not everyone was eating at the same time. Not to worry, the awkward night continued.

At the last dinner we went to, Frances had mentioned that she had a boyfriend and we talked about him for a little bit. Naturally, the second time we met I asked how they were doing. Cindy and Frances both, simultaneously, burst out in laughter. Elle and I looked at each other completely confused as to why they were laughing; we had found it a normal question to ask, especially as girls. Finally, after they could manage to speak in between laughs, Frances asked, “Why would you ask that?” Now, I felt like a complete idiot wondering if I had said something disrespectful. Needless to say, I did not contribute much to the conversation after that. It was strange to observe that they found that instance so hilarious and Elle and I were sitting there in a state of awkward confusion.

The Nervous Stage

Conversation One:

            I will be completely honest. Before this first conversation I felt that I would be completely out of my element. The only thing helping me was the fact that I was going with Elle. If it were to be just Frances and me, I could tell you exactly how it would have gone—awkwardly. Meeting new people and making conversation (aka small talk) is not my forte; not to mention, it makes me a nervous wreck. To add on top of that, it is someone that may or may not be able to communicate efficiently with me. If I wouldn’t have been able to understand what she was saying, then my automatic go-to is to nervously laugh. However, I could not do that in this case because God forbid she said something that was not meant to be laughed at. All these thoughts were running through my head consistently the day before and the day of the dinner I was going to. To say the least, I was apprehensive.

            As dinner time approached, there was another thing weighing on my mind as I was waiting. I had no idea whether or not Frances was a girl or a guy. My first instinct was to look up their Chinese name on Google and see if it was a girl or guy’s name. That did not help either. Like Frances, the Chinese name was also one that could go both ways. The next thing I did was email her asking what they were wearing so that I could identify them. Frances emailed back saying “a black t-shirt and a red cap.” At that point, I was almost certain it was a guy. Later on, Elle and I were walking to Dutch’s (which I was excited about because I had not had it all semester) and I saw a person with a red cap and a black shirt on. It was a girl. I had it so wrong.

            We sat down for dinner and Elle’s partner, Cindy, and Frances, who are coincidentally friends, both asked me what they should get. I said they should get the burgers, but I warned them that they were pretty big and that I usually do not finish them. Much to my surprise, Frances, who is quite petite, ate the entire burger. I was in shock. The conversation flowed greatly; there were points of awkwardness, but that was to be expected. We talked about each other’s families and boyfriends. Also, we talked about their home and whether they liked it better here. They both said, almost instantaneously, that the food back home was much better than here. They also mentioned going back to China one day. Overall, it was a great dinner and made me excited for the next time that we would meet.