Undergraduate / Joke obsession- William and Mary Supplement- What makes you unique? [4]

Hey everyone! This is a first draft, and I am looking for some help as to whether or not the topic choice is fine. This is kind of rough, so be prepared for a lot of mistakes. Thank you :)

Beyond your impressive academic credentials and extra curricular accomplishments, what else makes you unique and colorful? We know nobody fits neatly into 500 words or less, but you can provide us with some suggestion of the type of person you are. Anything goes! Inspire us, impress us, or just make us laugh. Think of this optional opportunity as show and tell by proxy and with an attitude.

Everyone's junior year is a time of unimaginable stress and distress. Left to the whims of my teachers, I ached for sleep, and some weeks seemed to drag on for what felt like years. But, despite this, I was always left with one constant source of joy: my jokes and puns. Whoever said that puns are the lowest form of humor was clearly and simply wrong in my opinion. They are funny, wickedly so, and I will defend my tendency to laugh and snort at them to the death. During that horrible year, I went through a phase in which every single day I would look up a brand new pun or joke every day before school began, eager to spread my albeit bad sense of humor to those around me. My favorite went like this: What do you call an anxious dinosaur? A nervous rex! Throughout that year, we were all nervous rexes, made so by the lack of sleep, stress of grades, and the impending threat of college applications. After deciding upon my joke of the day, I would then proceed to tell it to everyone that I knew, hoping to elicit at least one laugh. My attempts to be funny were met with a variety of reactions, from the more often heard response of "that is the worst thing that I've ever heard" to the occasional deep laugh that I was hoping to hear.

I enjoy in making other people laugh. It helps me distract myself from what is going on around me for a bit and to completely focus on something other than myself. But, beyond this, I know that I am helping those around me. To make someone laugh is to know that, for at least a minute, I have caused them a little bit of joy. Though the moment may be far and fleeting, I am still improving their life, not in the same way that comes from volunteering or helping in a more traditional sense, but it is still just as important. After all, laughter is the best medicine.

And it's true. The big, 'laugh out loud' type can release endorphins, increase blood flow, and improve the immune system, if only slightly. So, in the stressful times of junior year, despite my helplessness when it comes to watching my lovely and capable friends become downtrodden at the thought of AP U.S. history midterm and that impending English essay, I do have the power to improve their lives in some way, though it may be miniscule. So, I keep telling jokes. I know that I am in no way funny, but sacrificing my self-respect in order to make the people around me happier is a worthwhile price to pay. For if the people that you love are not happy and you make no effort to remedy this, what does that say about you?