BP #3- This I Believe

                                                         This I Believe

     I stood at the edge of the pool at my uncle’s house, staring into the sparkling water. We were visiting family in Senegal. My two cousins came around the corner with a mischievous grin on their face. Tapping my wrist signaling we were going to be late I was pushed into the pool with my clothes soaking wet.

     Yes, I was mad at them but then I happened. “Splash” Zeze did a flip into the deep end of the pool followed by my ever so graceful cousin Baidy dropping in. My four other cousins, Binta, Diarra, Batch, Ali and my sister came out of the house saddened to leave. The second they saw me dripping wet they dropped their bags and rushed into the pool like fish out of water.

     Laughing and having a belly flop competition with hand signals and a vocabulary of 2-5 words, that’s when I realized that laughter is the universal language, and wherever you go you can always connect through someone through laughter.

     When I was younger I remember when I was in Turkey and my friends Lily, Grace, my sister and I got in a fight with my cousin and her friends. “huigbiicfsrviy” they kept talking what sounded like gibberish to us. Lily, Grace, Yacine and I broke out into laughter. My cousin and her friends all started laughing and the whole thing turned into a laughing fest. (Maybe because what we were fighting about was so stupid!) Even though we never understood one word each of us was saying during the fight laughter resolved the issue.

     Laughter is a language of its own. Everybody speaks it differently with their own laugh, from the cackle to the giggle, but we all understand each other. Laughter can represent joy, happiness, and good times, depends what you’re laughing about! Wherever you go you can relate to someone through laughter even if you speak different languages or have different beliefs.