Growing up as an optimist was more difficult for me than I expected. I’m not saying that my life is easier by any means, but it makes situations a lot better for myself to look at the bright side of things. I used to struggle with wondering why bad things were happening and why exactly they were happening to me. I came to realize that bad things WILL happen and everyone has something going on in their life that they consider to be “bad.”

I would not say that I had an “ah ha” moment specifically, I just learned to adjust to my situations and what was happening to me, I would say it was around the time that I lost a dear friend of mine. I kept questioning and wondering why. Why was this happening to someone so special. Why this was happening to my friends and me. I learned after that long year that unfortunate things just happen. These things happen to everyone and it is not just the whole entire world against me. This was a hard concept to grasp but I feel as though I am more of a happy person because I decided to try to think more positively about events that happen that may or may not be bad. This way of thinking has gotten me to stress less about certain things and focus more on what is important in my life.

There was a certain person who I admired, and I admired the way that they conducted themselves and their outlook on life. Being an optimist is not always easy, and I can say that I have gotten a lot of heat from a variety of different people for being positive when something negative is going on. I’ve been questioned, and I have had people tell me that I believe I’m “perfect” and my life is “perfect” just because I am trying to take a positive from a negative situation. I don’t think that it’s fair, but then again, I learned a long time ago that you cannot change the way people act and think. Some people might agree with me and some may not, and that’s completely okay with me. It has taken me a long time to be the person that I am today, and I wouldn’t change the things that happened to me. This makes me who I am, and I am proud of the person I am and the person I’ve become.