Being a 17-year-old could definitely say I currently am in the portion of my life where a lot of growing-up and maturity takes place. Along this path of becoming an adult, I seem to be learning lesson after lesson about not only myself but of the human population around me. Most recently, a few events led me to stumble upon one of these very lessons, and regardless of what is happening around you, to stay positive.
Too often I hear people grumble about what they don’t have and not often enough of what they already posses, forgetting there are always people who do have it worse than them. Sometimes in life just sitting back and taking a second to be thankful for the things we have been provided with is enough to brighten your entire day, if not more.
People around you notice this positive behavior and, in my opinion, this will cause one of two things. Either a chain reaction will provoke them in catching the contagious attitude of those around them or, for whatever reason, jealousy perhaps of your success at simply being happy, they themselves will become negative and try and bring you down to their unhappy state of negativity.
These pessimistic people may use several tactics in an attempt to rain on your optimistic parade in order to make their lives not seem so mundane in the downbeat rut they find themselves stuck. However, here is my challenge to you, two words that if honestly lived by would bring you to your highest elevation on the happiness scale of life.
Stay positive. Easier said than done, I am aware but the fruit harbored by the labor of no negativity is well worth it. This, I have learned myself, and doing so has brought me to a place in my life where I enjoy spreading the feeling of happiness that my happy attitude has given me.
Therefore, I challenge you, people of Peabody, to wake up each morning with a determined will to live each day to the fullest you can with the best outlook possible, regardless if those you surround yourself with follow the lead or not. In return you will receive the ultimate satisfaction of not only being a more than content individual, but perhaps even giving others the same feeling of gratitude each day provides — a glass not only half-full but brimming over the edges.
— paige barnes