Laughter, it's infectious

Laughter is quite an amazing thing when you actually think about it. There aren’t many things in life that I can think of that are as infectious as laughter. Think about it. You’re with a bunch of friends watching a movie and one of you laughs. Even if that part of the movie wasn’t funny it is still hard not to laugh. Everyone laughs and it is a great thing that brings everyone together. No matter what you’re going through, laughter will be good for you.

In my opinion, a baby’s first laugh is one of the most beautiful sounds to hear. How can you not smile when you hear that? It’s something that will be part of them for the rest of their life, and it’s a part of them that shows happiness. No matter how horrible your day is going it is almost impossible not to at least smile when a baby laughs. Baby’s laughs are heartwarming and unforgettable. Even in Peter Pan you can see that a baby’s laugh is an amazing thing. The author of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, writes, “When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies.”

When anyone around me laughs I often have a smile on my face or I laugh. Usually it isn’t even because the joke or whatever they are laughing at is funny; it’s more likely because their laugh makes me laugh. I love being around people when they’re happy, and especially if that includes laughing together. More often than not, if people aren’t laughing and don’t seem to be having fun I try to be my weird self and make people laugh. The most fun I can have isn’t going out to the movies with my friends; it is hanging out talking and laughing at things that only we think are funny.

It can be understood by anyone. They say that music is a universal language which is quite obvious, but the way I see it laughter is the most distinct universal language. No matter what language you speak you can understand laughing. Everyone associates laughter with happiness and everyone enjoys being happy, so therefore everyone enjoys laughter. And why wouldn’t you enjoy it?

If your friend is feeling down, or even someone that you just notice doesn’t look too happy or looks upset, try to make them laugh. Not only is laughter infectious, but it is the best medicine. When I’m upset and people make me laugh it automatically makes me feel a little bit better. Don’t ever underestimate the power of your own laughter. Once you start laughing it’s usually hard to stop and frankly you shouldn’t try to stop because it is helping you deal with whatever you’re going through. Whenever you’re down call some friends and ask them to hang out. I know that if I’m not too happy with something that I have no control over I tend to hang out with my friends and just have fun laughing and doing dumb stuff.

No matter who you are or what you’re going through laughter is good for you. And the first step before laughter is smiling. It’s the little things in life that make us smile and this brings me back to a baby’s laughter. When you’re down think of something that makes you smile every time you hear it or see it. For me that is my godson’s first laugh. My day could be long and boring, but if I listen to that one time it can change my whole mood around. Find yours, it’s worth it. I will leave you with this; it takes about 45 muscles to frown and only 17 to smile. Smile everyone, and I hope that that smile turns into laughter.

-Eric Proulx

God brought me here

When I was about ten my family stopped going to church. Ever since then I considered myself a Christian, but I didn’t know what that meant until fairly recently. I can remember going to church every once in a while with my friends if I slept over on a Saturday night, I absolutely loved it. Singing at church wasn’t a thing I did often, but when I got the chance to do it I went all out. But even then I didn’t know the meaning of church; I didn’t know anything about the bible. My friends would all talk about a CCD program they were in to make their first communion and I would wonder why I wasn’t doing the same. In a sense, even when I was younger, I missed church. As I grew I began to pray every so often, but I wasn’t praying for the right things or reasons at all. Being 12 I guess I looked at God as my genie and I thought that if I prayed to him my prayers, no matter how unorthodox or selfish they were, would come true. My faith clearly needed some help.

I didn’t really think anything of not going to church when I got into junior high and high school. Continuing to pray every so often as I had before, I didn’t wonder anymore why I hadn’t been going to church. I don’t know why that stopped. God has always been in my life, but not as prominently as he could have been. When I’m pitching and take my hat off before the game I’m praying to God to give me the strength that I know I have to pitch the best I can. But at the same time I’m asking Him that my uncle will be with me as well. In tribute I scratch the 7 in the dirt with my toe, I look at my hat and close my eyes and I feel that God is with me and so is my uncle. That’s really the extent of my faith in high school.

Searching for colleges I really didn’t know where I wanted to go, and this worried me sometimes. I stressed often about it and I was just hoping that something would happen that could show me the way. Then it came. I got a call from the baseball coach at Gordon College. I said in my head, what is Gordon College…And then the coach told me and I wasn’t sure about it, but God kept pushing. He kept calling and I mean that in two different ways. Coach Rypel continued to call me every week and I now see that God was calling me to come to Gordon College. The way I see it, God used Coach Rypel to guide me to where I needed to go. If it weren’t for Coach Rypel, with God’s guidance, I would not be where I am today.

After I visited one time, I knew that Gordon College was likely the place that I would be going to school for the next four years. My final decision was a financial decision, but I knew that Gordon College would give me a great education and would help me understand and grow my faith more. Just being here at Gordon for a month has changed my faith and made me begin to grow as a person. It feels great being here and even though I may not understand the Bible or my faith as much as other people here, I’m learning. Not only am I learning in the academic sense, but I’m learning spiritually. I like the idea of growing my faith.

Sometimes I wish that I could have had that community through church when I was younger and other times I remember that God shaped my life this way for a reason. I guess it was easier for me to just not bring up the idea of going back to church in the past, even though I thought about it every once in a while. Since I’ve been at Gordon College I’ve already grown a lot in my faith. I’m going to church on Sundays, something that I missed out on for a while. I’m attending the baseball team Bible study on most Sunday nights. I’m praying more than I have in the past. Not only am I beginning to fall into my own faith, but some of my family members as well have started to think about going back to church. I want to use my faith to give other people knowledge and understanding of Christianity in hope that they too will pursue their faith. Just as it says in James 2:17, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” If you don’t go out and share your faith with others then your faith doesn’t mean much.

 Yes, I do attend a Christian college and I am learning more about Christianity than I ever have before, but I’m not going to let that change the person that I am. I’m not going to change who I am and start living differently just because I am getting a deeper understanding of Christianity. I am a Christian, but that’s not all that I am. There’s more to me, and more to everyone else, then their spirituality. I don't have regrets, I'm just me.

-Eric Proulx

How is a long distance relationship possible?

"Distance never separates two hearts that really care, for our memories span the miles and in seconds we are there. But whenever I start feeling sad, because I miss you, I remind myself how lucky I am to have someone so special to miss." - Unknown

Sticking with a topic on love, like my last blog, I want to address the idea of a long distance relationship. What makes a long distance relationship possible? I am in a long distance relationship, as some as you know. My girlfriend and I have been together for a little over 9 months and we decided that we weren’t going to break up just because we were going to college in different states. So far, it is going extremely well and I believe that it will continue to go well. Although it may be hard at times, it’s definitely worth it. But what keeps our love going?

You tend to see couples, even couples that have been together for a significant amount of time, breaking up before they go off to college, and I often wonder why people are doing this. I don’t know if it’s because they don’t really care about the relationship or they fear that someone will cheat, but I don’t understand it. It just doesn’t make sense to me that people that have spent so long together can just drop everything like that. I can’t imagine being able to do that. I guess some people can't emotionally handle the distance.

 With me and my girlfriend, our relationship has always been about trust. We both agree that trust is one of the most important things in any relationship, without trust a relationship is more than likely to fail. Just make sure you 100% trust each other; without that you have almost nothing. Sure we hit our rough patches, every couple does, but we work through them together. Every healthy relationship has problems, as I stated in my last blog. The strength of any relationship is not about how many problems you have, but how you deal with those problems and learn from them.

A way to make sure that the relationship doesn’t fall apart is to talk as often as possible. You have to continue to be a part of each other’s lives even though you can’t physically together. Talk every chance you get, because if you don’t you will definitely regret it. Another way to keep the “fire” alive is to see each other from time to time. You may have to wait a while to see each other in person, but it will be worth it when you finally do. An alternative to seeing each other in person is to video chat when you can. It’s always a great feeling to hear your significant others voice and see their face at the same time.

Before leaving for college I read other suggestions from people that had experience with long distance relationships. A common thing in everything I read was watching TV or a movie at the same time while on the phone. It sort of gives you the image of watching a movie together; the only difference is that you aren’t physically together. Apparently this works for some people, but I have yet to try it. You should also attempt to write hand written letters, guys especially. Hand written letters are a good way to try to express how committed you are to the relationship and to let your significant other know that they’re important.

The most important thing to remember is that it’s worth it. Being far apart is so worth it when you know that you will see each other soon. Not everyone can handle being in a long distance relationship, but if you can then your relationship will grow from it. You will be stronger as a couple and you’ll be able to handle almost anything together. So stay strong, you aren’t alone. Your significant other is always with you, in your heart. And know that you have a special kind of relationship.

-Eric Proulx

So much for till death do us part...

Marriage is certainly not what it used to be. The divorce rate in America for first marriages is around 40%. I don’t know about any of you, but this isn’t impressive to me. I don’t think that marriage vows are taken seriously enough anymore. Yes when you get married you say the vows, but do you understand them? Do you mean them?

Too often people jump into marriages way too quickly and they don’t understand the severity of what they’re doing. Till death do us part. That’s a very serious promise, a promise that is hard to keep for some people. But I think that if you’re willing to get married to someone you should be able to keep that promise. Why would you marry someone if you weren’t 100% certain that you want to be with that person for the rest of your life? When I get married I’m going to have to know for sure that I want to be with that person for the rest of my life. Because I don’t take those vows lightly. No one should take those vows lightly.

I guess I’m old fashion; I idolize my grandparent’s era of marriages. Yes there are marriages that still have that flavor, but not very often. I want a marriage like that, and I think that marriages like that ARE still possible. I just think that people aren’t willing to work at a marriage to make it work. If you love someone enough you do whatever it takes to be with that person. And if you don’t love someone that much, then why are you marrying them?

Divorce has provided an easy way out of marriages. It’s a way that you can just forget about everything when things get tough and give up. I guess I understand divorce in some cases, but I don’t ever want to get divorced. I suppose there comes a point in a marriage where you just can’t take anymore, but I don’t see myself ever getting to that point. I feel as if I would nip the problem in the butt before it got to that level. I certainly can’t speak from experience and I don’t judge the people that do get divorced.

An ideal marriage isn’t perfect in any way. Every single relationship has its problems, and if it doesn’t it isn’t a healthy relationship. Couples fight all the time. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to give up on the relationship every time something goes wrong. You have to be able to look past the hardships and realize that the good times outweigh the bad.

My hope is that marriages can begin to strive for how I think marriages should be; a lifelong commitment. In my eyes that is the essence of the perfect marriage. So when you get married, think of those marriages that do actually last a lifetime. Think of those couples that never fell out of love. Those couples that stuck through all the hardships and got stronger because of them. You may think that this is a storybook or romance movie kind of thing, but it can happen in reality. You just have to work at it.

 Thanks for reading, keep looking for the next one.

-Eric Proulx

Reoccurring 7's

It seems that everywhere I go the number 7 is there, everywhere. There's a reason for this of course. It's a reminder, a reminder that he's always here. For those of you that aren't close to me that are reading this I should probably first give you a little bit of background. Please bear with me, I know it's long.

First I'll start with what is likely to be the most sad part of my first blog of many to come. On New Years Day of 2009 Paul Proulx Sr. lost his long and hard battle with cancer. His family, me included, was filled with sadness, but also with a sense of relief. Of course with death you always see sadness, but this relief came because his suffering was finally over. Although he was gone, he no longer had to deal with the pain that he went through for so long. No one deserves to have to go through that, not only my Uncle who was honestly one of the greatest men that I've had the privilege of knowing, no one. My dad was with him for the last minutes of his life, which is how it was supposed to be. That's how God wanted it and I'm sure that that's how my Uncle wanted it too. I admire my dad for having as much strength as he does. I can imagine that being there wasn't easy for him, but he was strong.

Growing up I wasn't as close to my Uncle Paul as I should have been, that is quite clear now. I couldn't see the support and pride that he had in me at the time, but now I know that he was one of the people that had always been the most proud of me in everything that I had done. I hope he still is. My dad told me after he died that every time that my Uncle would see my name or a picture of me in the paper he would make a point to show or tell my dad. There was one other thing that he always told him as well, this is the one thing that has stuck with me and showed me how truly proud he was/is of me. He told my dad to make sure he took care of me and reminded him that he had "Precious Cargo" with him.

Still to this day I remember the day that I saw him for the last time. It was December 26th of 2008 and I had been lucky enough to pick his name for our secret Santa on my dad's side of the family in his last Christmas with us. We visited him, bringing him the perfect present for him. Scratch tickets! He had always loved them and I know that even if he didn't scratch all of them he tried like hell. This day also marked his 53rd birthday, so I'm sure he had a lot of other scratch tickets to scratch as well. Despite how sick he was you could see that he was still the loving and joking Uncle Paul that we had all learned to love. I remember leaving him that day, wondering if it would be the last time I would see him. I went to say goodbye, grabbed his hand, hugged him, and told him I loved him. He didn't let go of my hand. He held my hand tight, probably tighter than he should have been able to, and I knew that this was his way of saying goodbye to me for he could barely speak. As I walked out of that room I knew that I had seen him for the last time.

My Uncle's favorite number was always the number 7, and through him I have grown to love this number as well. Some of you may even know that I have started to wear that number 7 on the back of my baseball jersey at Gordon College, that is without a doubt for him. Those of you that have watched me pitch in recent years may recall the ritual I do before every game behind the mound as well. I scratch the number 7 into the ground with my toe in tribute to him and then I take my cap off and say a few words to myself. Recently, I have also written something inside my hats to look at every time I do this, but that's for me to know and for you to wonder about.

One of the requirements at Gordon College, as it is a Christian school, is to take an Old Testament class. Yes, it is dreadful at times but that's not my focus right now. I was reading through Genesis for my quiz tomorrow,terrible I know, and I couldn't help but notice all of the number 7's. Noah brings 7 clean animals for sacrifice in addition to the 2 of each kind on the ark. In my version of the bible (NAB), the number 7 is also referred to in Genesis 31 and Genesis 33 briefly. Right now I can't think of all of the other places around my life that I've seen the number lately, but they are everywhere. They're reoccurring 7's.

Thank you to those of you who took the time out of your day to read this. Know that I don't seek anything from this, I'm just simply speaking my mind.

-Eric Proulx