Laughter is the best medicine.

I still remember the day we went to visit the lot for our new house. It was supposed to be a fun girls’ outing. My mom, aunt, sister, and I walked around the dirt imagining where the kitchen would go and what our rooms might look like. We were still talking about everything when we got back into the car. Somewhere between exploring and piling in, a tiny uninvited guest must have followed us, because that is when I felt it. A sharp sting. A bee had flown in, and just like that, our dreamy afternoon turned into chaos in the backseat.

I burst into tears. Windows were rolling down, everyone was talking at once, and I was convinced this was the worst pain I had ever felt. We rushed to my aunt’s apartment for help, and in the middle of all the commotion she calmly suggested a very “creative” home remedy. She said it with complete confidence and a perfectly straight face. It caught me so off guard that I stopped crying and started laughing.

The sting did not magically disappear, but the panic did. My mom has always said, “Laughter is the best medicine,” and that day I understood why. The pain felt smaller and easier to handle, and what could have been remembered as a dramatic bee incident ended up turning into a good time we still laugh about. Sometimes all it takes is one unexpected moment of humor to change everything.