LAUGHING AT MY NIGHTMARE

Do you know or have contact with any celebrities, either personally or through social media? Hit me up if you do, I need to talk with you about a top-secret mission :)

The pressure to self-promote the projects I’m working on can be a little overwhelming. I’m constantly questioning whether or not I’m doing the right thing by telling all of you about my latest endeavors. Guilt consumes me whenever I haven’t posted a good story in a long time. I want nothing more than to make you guys laugh, but my life has become so crazy, so amazing, that sometimes there’s just not enough time. It makes me feel terrible, but at the same time, I know that I’m supported by hundreds of thousands of you around the world. Consider this my attempt to knock down the fourth wall, to open up my mind and allow you to see what I think about whenever I post about my nonprofit, or my book, or any type of call to action.

Two years ago, I started this blog as a stupid 19-year-old who wanted to tell a few funny stories. I expected no one to read them, and assumed that after posting a few, I would need to find another way to occupy my time (I probably would have turned to heroin). To my delightful surprise, I was wrong! Not only did people read my stories, but they enjoyed them and shared them with their friends. My blog took off in a way that I never could have predicted.

Up until that point in my life, I was not looking forward to my future. My declining physical state forced me to question how much time I had left, as well as how on earth I was going to become a productive member of society once I graduated from college.

“I’m going to be a writer,”I told people. Sure, great, awesome. You can write for some magazines, get paid $300 every other month, and live with your parents for the rest of your life while everyone else is out exploring the world. That was the thought process I battled every time my future came up. It will work out, I told myself. Somehow, someway, everything will work out.

Then my blog blew up, and everything did in fact work out—so much more spectacularly then I ever imagined it would. As my number of followers climbed into the thousands, I realized I was gaining more than just some fans; I was opening up an enormous opportunity. That opportunity developed into a nonprofit organization called Laughing At My Nightmare, Inc. With it came fundraisers, the need for volunteers, documentaries, more fundraisers, speaking tours, merchandise sales, business meetings, and a multitude of people that I now had to communicate with on a daily basis. At the same time, starting a nonprofit has given me a positive and anticipating feeling about my future. Maybe it sounds ridiculous. In two years, I know for a fact that my body is going to be a lot worse than it is now, but I can’t wait! Because of LAMN, my future will be spent traveling the world, changing lives, making people laugh, and working every day with my best friends. My palms get sweaty just thinking about it.

I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without the help that you have provided. Think about that for a minute. If you hadn’t read my blog, decided to follow, told your friends about me, shared my posts, watched my videos, donated to our fundraisers, and came to events, I would be sitting in my bedroom playing videogames right now, forcing myself not to think about my impending future. I’m pretty much forever indebted to you.

But I can’t stop, because you have given me so much of your support, I have the opportunity to spend the rest of my life the way I want to. At the end of the day, I suppose my self-promotions could be a lot worse (I could be begging you to sign my petition to support the innocent killing of puppies and babies), but I still feel uncomfortable when I ask for your time and money. I think I’m able overcome that discomfort and post about my nonprofit because I believe that my intention is still the same as it was way back when I started two years ago: to tell my story, to brighten someone’s day with laughter. Laughing At My Nightmare, Inc., and its message to live positively, is going to be the biggest, most badass nonprofit on earth if I have anything to do with it. Thank you for giving me the chance to believe that.

1.     Spit on them

2.     Tell them how great it is for them to be out in public

3.     Hit them

4.     Rustle their hair affectionately

5.     Kick them

6.     Throw them out of their wheelchairs

7.     Push them down a flight of stairs

8.     Call them Buddy

9.     Steal their money

10. Challenge them to a foot race

11. Throw baseballs at them

12. Run them over with your car

13. Ask them to do donuts in their wheelchairs

14. Let your dog bite them

15. Staple yard sale signs to them

16. Clean your shoes on them

17. Pop their tires

18. Call them Four Wheel Freaks

19. Throw firecrackers at them

Happy birthday to the most amazingest, awesomest, bestest Mom in the world!

On May 24th, I will be embarking on my first official speaking tour with my nonprofit, Laughing At My Nightmare, Inc! Together with my brother Andrew, and best friends, Andy and Shannon, we will be taking a road trip down the East Coast to spread my story and the message of approaching life’s challenges with positivity and a sense of humor. It is also Andrew and I’s last summer together before he goes away to college, so we are planning on having a kick ass time (assuming the three of them can keep me alive the entire time).

It is our goal to meet as many of you along the way as we can, because nothing that we do would be possible without the amazing support that you have shown us. We have one speech that is open to the public in Harrisburg, PA. I would love to see all of you smiling and laughing with us in that auditorium as we give our first ever speech in Pennsylvania! Since that is our only public speech on the tour, we have also arranged four meetups in Orlando, FL, Savannah, GA, Charlotte, NC, and Washington, DC. This will be an opportunity for you to meet us in a more intimate environment. We can talk, you can ask us questions, and we can just hang out and have a good time. All of the details are below. Please let us know if you plan on attending any of these events!

MEETUPS

Saturday, May 25 – 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Panera Bread

The LOOP-Orlando + LOOP West

3208 North John Young Parkway

Kissimmee, FL 34741

Ph: 407-483-1096

Please grab yourself a free ticket to this event so that we know you are coming here:

http://laughtour-orlando.eventbrite.com/#

Monday, May 27th – 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Panera Bread

1 West Broughton Street

Savannah, GA 31401

(912) 236-0275

Please grab yourself a free ticket to this event so that we know you are coming here:

http://laughtour-savannah.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday, May 28 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Panera Bread

201 S College St

Charlotte, NC 28202

Hines Charlotte Plaza

(704) 998-2074

Please grab yourself a free ticket to this event so that we know you are coming here:

http://laughtour-charlotte.eventbrite.com/

Wednesday, May 29 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Panera Bread

1350 Connecticut Ave NW

Washington, DC 20036‎

Ph: (202) 862-8536

Please grab yourself a free ticket to this event so that we know you are coming here:

http://laughtour-dc.eventbrite.com/

Speech

Wednesday, May 29th – 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Harrisburg University

326 Market St

Harrisburg, PA 17101

Listen to Shane and crew share stories about his life and the message of laughing at his nightmare.  We ask that you make a donation of any amount of your choosing in order to obtain a ticket to this show:

http://laughtour-harrisburg.eventbrite.com/#

On May 24th, I will be embarking on my first official speaking tour with my nonprofit, Laughing At My Nightmare, Inc! Together with my brother Andrew, and best friends, Andy and Shannon, we will be taking a road trip down the East Coast to spread my story and the message of approaching life’s challenges with positivity and a sense of humor. It is also Andrew and I’s last summer together before he goes away to college, so we are planning on having a kick ass time (assuming the three of them can keep me alive the entire time).

It is our goal to meet as many of you along the way as we can, because nothing that we do would be possible without the amazing support that you have shown us. We have one speech that is open to the public in Harrisburg, PA. I would love to see all of you smiling and laughing with us in that auditorium as we give our first ever speech in Pennsylvania! Since that is our only public speech on the tour, we have also arranged four meetups in Orlando, FL, Savannah, GA, Charlotte, NC, and Washington, DC. This will be an opportunity for you to meet us in a more intimate environment. We can talk, you can ask us questions, and we can just hang out and have a good time. All of the details are below. Please let us know if you plan on attending any of these events!

MEETUPS

Saturday, May 25 – 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Panera Bread

The LOOP-Orlando + LOOP West

3208 North John Young Parkway

Kissimmee, FL 34741

Ph: 407-483-1096

Please grab yourself a free ticket to this event so that we know you are coming here:

http://laughtour-orlando.eventbrite.com/#

Monday, May 27th – 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Panera Bread

1 West Broughton Street

Savannah, GA 31401

(912) 236-0275

Please grab yourself a free ticket to this event so that we know you are coming here:

http://laughtour-savannah.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday, May 28 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Panera Bread

201 S College St

Charlotte, NC 28202

Hines Charlotte Plaza

(704) 998-2074

Please grab yourself a free ticket to this event so that we know you are coming here:

http://laughtour-charlotte.eventbrite.com/

Wednesday, May 29 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Panera Bread

1350 Connecticut Ave NW

Washington, DC 20036‎

Ph: (202) 862-8536

Please grab yourself a free ticket to this event so that we know you are coming here:

http://laughtour-dc.eventbrite.com/

Speech

Wednesday, May 29th – 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Harrisburg University

326 Market St

Harrisburg, PA 17101

Listen to Shane and crew share stories about his life and the message of laughing at his nightmare.  We ask that you make a donation of any amount of your choosing in order to obtain a ticket to this show:

http://laughtour-harrisburg.eventbrite.com/#