When I was in the Points of Light Youth Leadership Institute, I remember hanging out with a bunch of fellow trainees at lunch. We were talking, joking around, and telling stories. There was one seventeen-year-old girl who living with a very religious family. She talked about how much she disliked being so sheltered. She said that when she was 18 she would move out, and enjoy being free. One guy said, "You mean, like burn down a house or something like that?"
The girl laughed. "Something like that."
Earlier that morning we had broken up into groups for a problem-solving workshop. Each group was supposed to find creative solutions to common issues. After a certain amount of time for discussion, groups would present their most creative, out-there ideas. One group had pollution as their issue. One of their solutions was to burn down all of the car dealerships to make a statement about the toxins cars produce. This idea was ridiculous, of course, seeming as a) you can't commit arson just to make a statement and b) the amount of pollution produced from setting fire to dealerships and the cars within them would hardly be worth the effort. Our trainer brought the latter point up, though not unkindly, and we all got a good laugh out of it.
So here we were at lunch, and the idea of burning down a house in rebellion to strict parents was brought up. I casually made a joke, saying, "You know, you could burn down car dealerships. I hear it'll stop pollution."
I didn't think that the joke was anything special until I said it. On the contrary, it was a hit, and I barely got the first sentence out before everyone burst out laughing.
In that moment, I was very, very proud. Here I was, the youngest person in the camp, receiving high fives and uproarious laughter from people three, four years older than me. We were so different, and yet we respected one another and didn't care how differently we acted, spoke, dressed, or laughed. In that moment we bonded over a common experience, and for that I am eternally grateful.
Moral of the story:
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
Dale Carnegie
