This week I had a rather annoying experience in which due to the neglect and pure laziness of one of my roommates part of my apartment flooded late at night. I was up 3 hours later that I had wanted to be cleaning up the mess. I had all sorts of reasons to be mad, annoyed, and angry. As I thought about it though, I decided to look more on the positive side, and look for good things that had happened, such as
1) I was able to stop the flooding before it got the whole apartment
2) There was no permanent damage
3) Maintenance did come (though after I'd cleaned most of the mess) and helped
As I began to think about why these happened, I began to be grateful for things I would have never thought, such as accidentally falling asleep so that when I would wake up I would leave my room to use mouthwash and discover the flooding one hour earlier that it would have otherwise been discovered.
Anyways, as I have tried to be positive I have been able to avoid getting mad at my roommate. I am also not as annoyed with the apartment management, who should have replace the part that caused the flood months ago when I first filed a request for it to be fixed.
So what will I do? I will be more optimistic and work to always be happy.
Being optimistic is always the best choice, although it may not always be the easiest choice in the beginning. The other night my family went out to dinner and we had terrible service, but all together we decided that we weren't going to let it bother us. At the end of the night, we left the restaurant as happy as could be! We were all really happy that we chose not to let the annoying situation bother us, or it really could have ruined a great night!
ReplyDeleteBad things happen to good people. good things happen to bad people. this is where I insert some Confucius Quote from a stale fortune cookie, but I got none. enjoy this particularly asian comment though. Seriously though, If bad things didn't happen to good people, how do they become better?
ReplyDeleteOptimism is key! Optimism does feel a lot like mind over matter in the sense you choose to make everyday a positive day. I guess another positive note from this experience is that you got your apartment washed now!
ReplyDeleteI can really relate to this post! I'm learning just how much we are in charge of our own feelings. We can choose to not get annoyed or offended. The only things we can control are ourselves. I'm impressed with your attitude.
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