I truly love being infuriatingly optimistic. It’s probably one of my favorite things ever because it annoys so many people but also sometimes can rub off on those that you least expect it to. For almost twenty years, I’ve chosen to look for the good things in life and for a lesson in everything that has ever happened to me. Okay, so maybe not literally twenty years because I doubt six year old Sam was sitting there, telling everyone that everything happens for a reason and the crayon broke because you were meant to pick another color. But I have reflected on my past and things that have gone on throughout my twenty years to look at the positives.
Like for instance, when my mom was in labor with me, I coded. Literally, flat out died (pun intended!). Because of different mishaps that happened through my “miracle birth” as we now choose to refer to it as, I was born with Brachial Plexus Injury. BPI is the disconnection of spinal nerves and those with it, sometimes don’t have full complete motion and are limited to the things that they can do with their arm. I’m extremely blessed that my injury isn’t as bad as it could have been and that I have almost 99% motion ability; there are some with the injury who are completely unable to use it.
When I was a freshmen in college, I wrote an article about having Brachial Plexus Injury, the struggles that those with BPI go through and how we should not allow our injury to ever hold us back in life. It was published on an online publication that I was writing for at the time late at night and so I posted it to a few of the BPI groups that I’m a part of to share it. The very next morning I woke up to over one hundred notifications from people who were commenting, sharing it and reaching out to me personally. People with BPI, parents of children with BPI and doctors were all reaching out to say that the piece had opened their eyes to things; they felt exactly the same way and it was very comforting to know that they weren’t alone.
I had taken something that was a negative and left such a dent in my own life in so many ways and turned it into something positive. I had picked it apart until I found the good in it and then once I had, I shared it with people who were in the same boat. No matter what kind of situation I’m going through, I always try desperately to find the good thing lying beneath all of the bad. Not only has doing such a thing helped me through all of the struggles, it’s become more and more easier to view everything in life that way. I’ve trained my mind to automatically look for the good and it helps you more than you would think. You become just happier and lighter; you don’t feel suffocated by the negativity from the world around you.
Moods are contagious, that’s more than obvious. But perspectives are too. When you are surrounded by people who continuously choose to look at things in a bad light, you’ll be doing the same before you know it. You need to train yourself not to look for the bad in things. Fight it, beat it out and stick to your guns.
That is what you need to do in your own life: take whatever is negative and change your perspective. Force your mind to search deep for something good within it. In life, there will always be high mountains that you will need to get over. You’ll be intimidated at the sight of them and automatically sike yourself out. Change your perspective. Remind yourself that whatever is on that other side of the mountain, is probably one of the best things that could be in your life. The higher the mountain, the better the end result.
In the great words of Miley Cyrus, “Life’s a climb, but the view is great.”