Jenna Kim Jones: The Curse of Being Too Happy

This article was originally written by Latter-day Saint comedian Jenna Kim Jones for comeuntochrist.org. The following is an excerpt. 

I am a stand-up comedian. When I first started out in the comedy world, I got teased all the time. Here’s why. I remember being at a comedy club years ago standing around waiting to perform when I struck up a conversation with a couple of other comics. They asked why I was hanging around the club. When I told them I was also a stand-up, they didn’t believe me. One of them said, “No, you’re not one of us. You are way too happy.”

This accusation has followed me for years like a curse—the curse of being “too happy.” The truth is, I am a very happy person. Whether it’s in a joke, a song, or something funny a friend said, I feel entitled to be happy. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, “We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fulness of joy. Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness.”

Before I got married, I was very happy—so happy I thought maybe I didn’t even really need to get married. I had an awesome job at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I lived in the greatest city in the world, New York City, and I had friends and family I knew I could always count on. I was fine, perfectly content. Plus, dating was hard! And more often than not, it caused me pain. So when I met my husband, I wasn’t looking for a relationship. In fact, I blew him off at first. Thankfully, he was persistent and we ended up going on a date. He was my age, we had more in common than I ever imagined, and dating him felt so right. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous about marriage. The problem with having all this happiness was that I was afraid of losing it. I didn’t understand that there was more of it in store for me.

Read the full article at comeuntochrist.org.