things to look forward to

Life isn't fair. Sometimes it is and we don't appreciate it. But there are times when things happen and they are completely beyond your control. That is okay. These things are going to happen. What is important is what you learn from it. What is important is how you deal with what is happening around you. Can you be productive with troubled feelings? That's crucial. Do some yard work when you're upset. Get to that to do list. This blog itself is a product of a time when I was down.  Something that really helps me is to have little things to look forward to. The littlest things. And the bigger your problem, the smaller the things to look forward to can be. If you're having a stressful week, have a fun day planned with friends to look forward to. If a project you are working on has got you down, look forward to the day it's over and all landmarks in between now and then. If you have a broken heart, look forward to how good you're cool bed sheets will feel when you lay down on them tonight. Always have something to keep you going. Give yourself fuel. Never take anything for granted. Especially the people around you. If they love you, cherish it. If you love them, love them with all that you are.

the bright side of things

I have a bad habit. We all have bad habits. Some of us bite our fingernails, Some of us swear too much, some of us crack our knuckles. I have a bad habit. I drive angry

and yes, every time I drive there's a hot girl in my car

 This past weekend I drove angry. I was on my way to my robotic lighting presentation at the University of Texas campus, and I WAS NOT GOING TO BE LATE. So I decide to take the highway. In Austin. This was my first mistake. I'm driving and I'm all like

and then I see a detour. How I ever assumed that I was going to not hit some kind of obstacle on this, the most important of days, is beyond me. So I think "okay it's fine, whatever." I begin to take an alternate route down Congress and start planning on how I'm going to get back on track from where I'm going.

My next mistake was assuming that I could get back on track from where I was going. I was too busy being frustrated to really take notice of what was going on, but from what I could tell, someone had decided that this was going to be a perfectly good day to raise an ENORMOUS TEXAS FLAG around the capital.

I almost messed with it

So by this time I'm pretty angry.

RAGE

You probably wouldn't like me when I'm angry. I just start to get really snappy. Not snappy in a "I'm going to applaud this slam poetry" kind of snappy, but snappy in a "I'm going to find the civil engineer that had to do with the building of this excuse for a town and then I'm gonna find the city coordinator and do terrible things to them" kind of snappy.

One of the big reasons why I hate being in bad moods is a firm belief I have that a negative mind set will perpetuate negative consequences and therefore lead to more reasons why you're angry. In a real world example, my being angry that I had to really go out of my way to get to where I was going made me completely overlook that I was about to head into a roundabout (which why do we even have those in America?)

I was never informed of this rule

So because I failed to notice what the blazes I was doing, I almost hit a lady (who was conveniently strapped into a car), slam on my breaks, and hit my tire on a curb, thoroughly messing up my tire.

So this is one of the many ways, that bad moods can actually make your day even worse. It's a viscous cycle, there's really no way to win, like most childrens games

"How did I NOT see that coming???"

Now this blog is called weekly dose of optimism. So there has to be some silver lining. Thankfully that silver lining comes in the form of what I had to do in order to make sure I could get to school without the use of a car. I called a friend of mine (shout out to samwise) and asked if I could stay with him for a while.

Life has a funny way of pulling us away from things that are really important. I haven't had time to spend with some of my closest friends in weeks. I got to their apartment, and immediately felt at home. We wasted time on the internet, we caught up, we made stupid jokes. I had a really great time with people who I wouldn't have seen otherwise

Me when I was with my friends

So yes it's a pain that I don't have my car. Yes I still have to pay for damages. But had I not let things get me down then it wouldn't have gotten to that point to begin with. And as soon as I changed my attitude I started having a great time. Sleepovers out of necessity are always more fun :D 

MANLY SLEEPOVER

Oh and side note, the thing I was gonna be late for? I was still late (obviously) but it went REALLY well. Here's a taste of what you're missing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8jjWpdTA8A
diamonds are a girls best friend designed by Julian Joseph

Anyway, case in point, you can't change your the circumstances around you, but you can change how you view them, and that could make ALL the difference.