# 3 (and #4). Taking a Wrong Turn

During the summer, not all that long after I got my license, I decided to drive myself and one of my friends to Shady Oak Beach in Hopkins. I did not have my own car yet, so I resorted to using my dad's Expedition, which always makes me feel like I'm driving a tank. I was already nervous, and my lack of directional skills did not make things any easier. I knew that I needed to take Highway 494 to Highway 7, and from there go to Shady Oak Road and follow that up to the beach. What I did not know, however, was which way to turn onto Highway 7. You see where I am going with this.

While driving, I saw the turn for Highway 7. I did not think about which way I was going, or which way the beach was, and I ended up making a wrong turn. I had never driven to that beach, and the last time I was even there was a few years ago, so how was I supposed to know which way to turn?

I knew that the turn off for Shady Oak road was soon, or at least it would have been if I was going the right way, so after a couple minutes on the road I started getting a nagging suspicion that something was wrong. As I saw it, there were three possibilities: One, I had made a wrong turn and was driving away from where I was trying to go. Two, the road and beach had disappeared from the face of the earth completely, or Three, I had not gotten there yet. I figured the first was the most likely, but I decided to keep going just in case it was farther than I thought it was. Besides, I had only had my license for two months by that time and driving on my own was still a novelty to me. As we went down the open road, we started seeing less buildings, malls, and other evidence of an urban setting and started seeing more farmland.

I was getting pretty sure that I was going the wrong way, but I wasn't ready to admit my error. Once we reached a sign for Victoria, I knew I had no choice besides pulling off the road into a driveway and breaking down and calling for directions.

As it turned out, I went west onto Highway 7 when I should have gone east. If I had gone east, I would have only had to go a mile before reaching Shady Oak road. Going west, I ended up 15 miles away in the wrong direction. While I was driving the wrong direction, besides making a memory that I would eventually write about in a blog, I also learned a lesson about driving: "Always make sure that you know where you are going and how to get there." Now, whenever I am going somewhere new, I make sure I have turn by turn directions there and back.

The Humor of the Unexpected

I find that the things that are unexpected in life are usually some of the funniest. Be it the Motivator on Wipeout sending a hesitant contestant into the water below, someone running and all of a sudden hitting something of falling, or just a random comment that no one saw coming, these never fail to amuse.
When I hang out with my friends, some of the most random and unexpected things happen. This is why I have so much fun with them. For example, just before the homecoming game, we were hanging out at my friend Emilie's house when Jon said something about "the ovens are going to eat us." Nothing led up to it, and nothing would have suggested that he was going to say anything like that. This is what made it so funny. Another example, and it pains me to say that I was the victim of this one, is when we were at McDonald's eating ice cream. We were sitting in our regular booth when Lily asked Madison to record something. I look over and Lily is counting down and then slams into me. Next thing I know, I am sliding off the booth bench and hitting the floor.
Even though it happened to me, I still found it really funny. It was just so unexpected and out of the blue, how can you not laugh?
I think the reason that I, along with a large portion of people my age, find random and unexpected things funny is because everything else around us is so structured. We wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, go to class, get homework, take tests, go home, do the homework, eat dinner, and go to sleep. The next day, it all starts again in what feels like an endless cycle with some weekends and breaks thrown in occasionally. We know for the most part what to expect, and when things are happening that when something comes along and is not like that we just have to laugh.
America's Funnies Home Videos is another thing that a lot of people my age enjoy. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that the funniest videos are where everything seems normal and the all of a sudden BAM, something comes out of nowhere and hits someone or trips them up, or scares them. These are the funniest for the same reason. When something random and unexpected happens, it disrupts the redundant cycle of our lives and at the least puts a smile on our faces.