I had one of those moment’s this morning where the only thing I could do was laugh at the ridiculousness of the moment. My occupational therapist has me doing those brain exercise books or websites each day for 10-15 minutes to help challenge my brain and build new neural pathways. Today, I was working on logic word problems. Side note: I have NEVER enjoyed word problems even before my Long Covid and brain problems came into the picture. I don’t care what time trains A, B, and C left, how fast they are going, and which one of them is going to end up at the station first. If I worked for Amtrak, maybe I’d care.

Today’s logic problem was to figure out which teacher each student went with based on clues such as “Sally is right next to the classroom Lucy is in.” and so on and so forth. I got most of the students to their correct classrooms, but had 2 students left and after spending far too long trying to figure out what classrooms they belonged in, I decided they didn’t have a classroom and would be spending the school year in the hallway. lol.

Now at 37 years old a logic problem like this should not be difficult for me and yet thanks to Long Covid right now it is. I could have beaten myself up over it, but I chose to laugh and find the humor in the situation. I am a former teacher with a Masters degree who definitely would not win the game show “Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” And who right now spends time each day working on brain books and puzzles that are literally designed for dementia patients. As I was laughing at the difficulty of the today’s logic word problem, it got me thinking of all the other moments on this journey that have actually been incredibly funny..like worthy of a sitcom episode funny.

There was the time 11 days after getting Covid when I was in the ER because I couldn’t keep any food down, my heart rate was insanely high, and I felt like complete garbage. I sat in the waiting room for hours and got to listen to a person from the local county jail rap about freedom while handcuffed. Even in my haze of illness, the irony was not lost on me.

There was the time I couldn’t find my purse. I looked everywhere in my apartment and car. After taking a break from looking, I opened up my fridge to get a drink of water and lo and behold there was my purse. Doesn’t everyone store their purse in their fridge? After that episode, I spent some time blow drying my debit and credit cards to warm them up and make sure they would work.

There was the time I went to get a package at my apartment door wearing only a t shirt and thin leggings. Not only did I forget to dress for the outside weather, I also forgot my keys. I got to spend 20 mins outside waiting for a friend to pick me up to go get my 2nd set of keys, so I could get back into my apartment.

There was the time my 6 year old nephew had to step in and help me solve a brain puzzle I was playing on an app on my phone as I couldn’t figure it out and he responded with “That’s so easy.” I just had to laugh because moving these different colored lines around to make them all fit together without crossing over each other was anything but easy for me. It was actually a giant pain in the ass!

There’s been countless times over the last two years that the people in my life have gotten to play the game “Guess what word Sara is trying to say.” It’s a form of charades where I try to act out the word I’m thinking of. Unfortunately for them, my acting skills are not one of my strengths.

While this journey has been full of moments that have absolutely broken my heart, it has also been full of moments that have made me laugh until I cried. I think when life brings us to a season that we did not ask to visit, our power lies in choosing how we respond. We can choose to respond with anger, bitterness, fear, self-loathing etc, which I have definitely chosen at times. Or we can choose to respond with grace, self-love, and humor. Each time I open up my brain book that says, “Designed for Dementia Patients” in the corner I choose to laugh at the absurdity that I am 37 years old and struggling to do exercises designed for dementia patients. Whatever you are facing in life if you can stop and try to find the humor in the absurdity of it all it might just make getting through that season of life a little bit easier. For me, I have discovered that tears of laughter are some of the best medicine.