iExamen 2-Tyler Murray

The day I decided to pick was the Saturday of the weekend I went back home. At first it was incredibly easy because I was so excited to see my puppy that there were no negative thoughts in my head. However, the way I talk to people, especially those I’m familiar with, usually is through heavy sarcasm and jokes which aren’t always kind, useful, and true. I told my mom via text and her response was, “that’s not going to happen.” She was right, I didn’t go the whole day like that, mainly because my sister and I spoke to one another which results in us primarily ripping on one another (out of love, sort of). I did make a conscious effort to only utter nice thoughts, mainly because my mom kept calling me out on the three guidelines. Then I began to argue that even if what I was saying wasn’t technically nice, it was useful, in my mind. It made me realize that if people don’t get that I’m kidding when I joke, I could come across as an asshole. My family knows this already because they’ve been around me for 19 years but even me just following those three rules for one day made my mom notice a difference in the way I talk, even if I slipped up a couple times. Sometimes, I talk to my family in an incredibly obvious nice voice to make them laugh. For example, my mom said that she ran out of cheese for the tacos and I responded in a Catholic schoolboy tone with, “Gee whiz Mom, there’s no way that’s possible, you are way too talented of a cook to make that kind of mistake. I love you.” Obviously, she told me to shut up. 90% of the times that I genuinely was saying something nice, someone would call me out for being sarcastic. I guess that’s a testament to my normal way of communicating with the world. I never realized how much humor and sarcasm I used throughout the day involuntarily. When I hung out with my friends that night, I told them about what I was doing and they immediately laughed when I told them I was actually taking it seriously. Around my friends I couldn’t stay kind etc. because well, we’re guys and our way of communicating with one another is through ridiculous jokes and making fun of each other. I was kinder when talking to girls, even those that I was friends with. I still joke the same amount, I'm just not as vulgar or for lack of a better word, stupid. Basically, this day of speaking only kind, true, and useful words, a lot of which were not useful, I realized the enormous role that sarcasm and jokes play in my daily vernacular and conversations. I think I use them as a crutch to lean on because I know I'm witty so I guess I stick to what I know when I talk to people so that I feel more comfortable.