I've always said that if I were someone else listening to me tell my life story, there is a good possibility that I would think I was a compulsive liar.

My life has always felt more like an April Fool's Day joke than anything else. Any minute Aston Kutcher is going to pop out of the corner and scream in my face "You just got punked!".

So many horrible things have happened in my life, that I have no choice but to have a biting, off-center sense of humor. If I took everything that has happened to me to heart, if I actually allowed myself to wallow in the trenches of the wars my psyche goes through on a regular basis, I would fall to the ground like a house of cards blown apart by the wind.

This is why I always gravitate towards people who are, in a sense, "a whiter shade of pale." Those who have gone through unspeakable horrors in their own lives are those with whom I grow the strongest affiliations with. They are people who I often trust the most. They are considered society's outcasts; people who are judged at face value by those who are too myopic to actually take the time to get to know them. They have been through enough to understand how fragile and important respect and trust truly is. They are the people in my life who have stopped caring what anyone thinks of them to whatever degree. They only care about the opinion of those who care for them.

I know I come off as a caustic person (one of the kinder names that has been attributed to me), and I know I can be blunt way past the brink of impropriety, but what you see is what you get.

I have learned that one of the biggest wastes of time is to try to make everyone happy. No matter what you do, you will offend someone no matter what. Using up all of your energy doing your best to not rock the boat will leave you one of the most miserable human beings on the planet.

Another huge waste of time? Taking yourself too seriously. If I didn't have the ability to laugh at myself, to turn my misery into a joke that makes myself laugh just has hard as my "audience", then I doubt very much I would even be alive today.

All of the great comedians that have ever lived all use their misery to turn it into something that is universal, something that everyone can have a good laugh at. They make it into a story that everyone can relate to, and in turn, they make their audience realize that they are not alone in their struggles.

Learn more about this author, Katy Andrews.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Satire: Life?
We want to hear your view. Write now!