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Edge of Sanity

Cara Edge | Sta 

I sat down to write a columnlast night. About hal way intoit, I thought “wow, this is just a variation on every other columnI’ve written. Boo hoo, lie is busy as a student. Boo hoo, pity me.I wanted to incorporate somehumour. Enter subject numbertwo. Within ve minutes, I dis-covered that I was, yet again, incomplaining mode. I guratively crumpled up that attempt andwent to bed.

Tis inability to write some-thing that wasn’t a orm o com-plaint soon bugged my mind.Tinking back, the majority o the conversations I’ve had withpeople lately have been one orboth o us complaining aboutsomething. It’s no wonder why we’re seeking so much pity – howrequently do we take the time tosit back, and appreciate the goodthings in lie?

Still being within reach o NewYears (with my resolution to, yetagain, go to the gym regularly being undermined by, yet again,doctors’ orders), it’s a temptingresolution to make – to look onthe positive side o things, that is.However, I ound I had already broken it beore I had even madeit. Te rst thought that came tomy mind was: “I’ll never be ableto keep that one!”

So rather than setting mysel up or ailure by making it aresolution, I’ve decided to sim-ply change my attitude towardlie in general. I shall try to seethe silver lining in the cloud.Rather than ocusing on the actI’m insanely behind on my read-ing, despite the act we haven’teven been in class a month, I’llbe thankul that I can aord tu-ition and textbooks. Instead o ocusing on the gross error thata riend is committing, I can bethankul I have riends.

It was actually remarkably easy to keep this up, even aer hav-ing my car not start, having towork early in the morning, andsuering through reezing tem-peratures. I thought this actually might have been the best attitudechange I’d ever made.

Until I arrived at work.Tere is nothing quite like walk-

ing in the door to hear “Oh, youwill never guess what happenedto me.”

Ah yes, two days o positivethinking all ruined in two sec-onds. It’s nearly impossible tostay positive when someone de-cides to rain on my parade. Tereisn’t even any gurative umbrellato keep me dry.I spent some time trying to think 

o how to stay positive in the aceo those people that ALWAYShave some orm o drama goingon in their lie, and I have yet tocome up with an adequate situa-tion. It seems that this positiveattitude only works well in situ-ations where I can surround my-sel with either happy people, orno one. Given the act that we’reall able to sit around and bitchabout lie together, it’s highly likely that the latter would be theeasiest option.

Ultimately, the best option is tokeep practicing the ability to seethe bright side o things. Tat way when a big storm comes by, I’ll beable to see the sunshine throughthe clouds.

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Weathering the Storm

Flickr.com, Creative Commons, 2009.