Perhaps bursting into laughter in the middle of a French final exam and trying to contain it by fake coughing was not the best solution. But the two all-nighters I had pulled beforehand made it seemingly impossible to stifle my laughter. The fight for joy is often such a battle, why then contain it? Propriety in our culture often demands that uproarious laughter is not acceptable in certain situations, but the gift of joy should not be quelled. My solution? Dismiss myself if I have to, to give full vent to my joy, or to channel that joy into another expression – gratitude, writing a song, expressing love to those around me. So I guess in the end, I do not contain it at all, for to contain joy would make the expression of it insincere.