Funny, but I had the most unusual experience recently. Actually, it isn't really that unusual I suppose. Probably plenty of you have been through the same thing. I would venture to say that you wouldn't find it as funny if you haven't been through it. It's one of those things that isn't funny at all as you are going through it. It's only funny after you go through it and can look back on it and laugh, knowing that you have done it and don't have to do it again.

It reminds me of a story about my father. Well...I guess not exactly what he went through, but pretty close. I remember him talking about it at the dinner table. Those were the best times. We always heard the best stuff about families and such at the dinner table. The "old days" and how things were different back then; how we would never be able to handle the "old days"; how today's kids had it so much better. Then he would tilt his head back, stare off to some distant moment, and then laugh....never even mentioning what he had just thought of.

But back to this. I am sure there are some people that have been through the same thing and don't look back and laugh. It takes a well adjusted person to laugh at themselves anyway. Or, not really at themselves, but the circumstances that we find ourselves in at times. A few may even be offended at the fact that I would bring up such a thing. I think it would be the very few, but a few nonetheless.

However, the ones of you who won't be offended are my focus. You have probably been through this and you look back on it and laugh. Though you may have been in a conversation and brought it up, only to have offended someone that has been through the same thing and, unfortunately, cannot look back on the experience with a smile on his, or her, face. Which is a shame since usually when two people who have "been there, done it, got the T-shirt and look back with a smile on their face" get together, they have a great time talking about it.

I have a friend whose family just doesn't have a sense of humor about it at all. I was at his house eating dinner one night and he brought it up. I thought his father was going to smack him at the table, and we were both thirty years old at the time. His father said that he had a friend that had been through the same thing and was never the same afterwards. His dad said that when it changed his friend, it changed him as well and he can't forget it. That's why he didn't want us to talk about it.

That night I understood more about it, though my personal experience wasn't until recently. I am glad that my friend's father's experience didn't ruin my ability to look back and laugh at my circumstance. I just can't help but chuckle when I think of all I went through, dreading it before hand and then thinking nothing of it afterwards. I know most of you feel the same way as I. That is why I went ahead and wrote this. For you. Those of you that would read this and just smile. You've been there, you know all about it and you look back and laugh.