Staying On The Funny Side Of Humor

I went to the doctor’s office yesterday. Last time I went was four years ago, for childbirth reasons, which explains why I haven’t been back. I see this nurse who I had laid eyes on once, four years ago, when we shared one of those ordinary nurse-to-patient moments. I think she weighed me, frowned, and made me pee in a cup. That was the extent of our relationship which I guess you could consider close, as there aren’t too many people in this world that know your true weight and ask to see your pee.

But that’s not the point. The point is that we are now having our second meeting after four years and who knows how many patients, and this woman is gushing over me like we’re best friends. And I just can’t figure it. Says she thinks about me all the time, looks for me in the paper, wonders how I’m doing. I’m floored, thinking she must have confused me with somebody else.

“Oh, no,” she says. “I will never forget you.”

I’m thinking this may not be a good thing because I’m sure there are still people who remember me dancing on the table at that party the year Coyote Ugly came on TV and I had memorized all the dance steps and still thought I looked cute in a tank top. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but I couldn’t resist asking the nurse how she remembered me. How, out of all the hundreds of patients, every week, every month, every year, she remembered me.

“That’s easy,” she said. “You were the funniest pregnant woman I’ve ever met. There are two types of people I never forget, the ones who made me mad, and the ones who made me laugh. The rest in the middle – they just fade away.”

Don’t ever underestimate the value of humor and its ability to have a lasting impression on the people you wish to influence in life. And keep in mind that people never remember what you made them think, but they always remember how you made them feel.