“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!”

At this week’s Toastmasters meeting, I was asked to say a joke. Not one joke came to my mind. In that moment, I realized how seriously I take life.

Take Toastmasters, for example. I joined in January. On schedule. I was all intent on finishing the CTM program by October this year. I would do a speech a month, sometimes two. I was serious and on point. I got stopped in my tracks when I checked out the schedule only to find that there were no open slots until April. What!?! I almost had a coronary.

Why is that?

Life for me has been one milestone after another. I couldn’t tell you what happened in between. Not because the milestone was so poignant, but because all the while I would concentrate on the end result. Living in the moment, enjoying the journey, and having fun are foreign concepts to me…until this year.

Zest and fun are mandatory ingredients this year. So once I caught my heart and realized what was happening, I decided that I would go to every meeting to make friends, actively participate, have raucous fun, and learn to engage an audience one table topic, one time keeping explanation, and one evaluation at a time. I know I will inevitably complete the CTM program. What’s more important to me is that I totally eat up the full experience.

So this weekend, I’m out to find some jokes, and I’m taking it seriously Know any good ones?

In Spirit,
Nneka