I want to go into stand-up comedy.
This is the only thing that makes me happy: making people laugh, sometimes even on the fly.
I'm a decent writer. I could write a novel. Or short stories. Or hell, finish my PhD and write a bunch of academic articles? I spent a month in Oxford this summer and submitted a book review for publication, for fuck's sake. So there's that. There's all of that.
But.
Laughing.
That's all I want to do.
Sometimes I joke about dropping out of my fucking PHD PROGRAM AT JOHNS HOPKINS WHICH PAYS FOR ALL OF MY TUITION BTW and just mowing lawns the rest of my life.
I love the fuck out of mowing lawns.
I also love simpler things, though. Simpler, yet more refined things. You know? Making jokes to my friends on a hungover Sunday morning about Darth Vader beatboxing. Or making fun of certain accents. Or. Or. Or.
I like options. I like things that are open to me. I just listened to a TED talk given by a monk with a very strong German (Draculan/Transylvanian?) accent who insisted on the abundance of opportunity in our lives.
[hey ask me what the capital of any country is. i know it.]
[BTW DO YOU NOTICE MY PERFECT PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING EVEN THOUGH I'M 679009 DRINKS DEEP aka 3 gin drinks and 3 wine drinks?? go away]
I've noticed this. I've noticed that the closer I get to closing in on my dissertation topic and finishing up my lingering incomplete papers/translation exams/comprehensive exams, the more I turn to comedic relief. For myself, but much more for my friends, who are going through the same weird struggles [Who the fuck gets a PhD?? weird demented assholes, that's who]. I can't let my friends say a complete sentence at the bar or at brunch without interjecting. "Oh! [funny thing!]," I'll say, and sometimes they laugh. But sometimes they guffaw, or even snort. And my pride grows incrementally.
I think it helps, being a grad student. This lifestyle is a joke waiting to be written. Most of you guys haven't even heard the joke based on my last name, which almost tore me apart my very first semester of grad school, but which also makes people cry-laugh today, and my ancestors roll around in their grave. It's pretty damn good.
My friend Rebecca recommended today - and this hasn't been the first suggestion - that I start a blog. Welp, worldp, derp, here goes nothing.
I hope you like to be entertained.
Loading comments...