My life has been pretty idyllic, to say the least. I was born into a middle class family, raised by parents who stressed the importance of kindness, forgiveness, and hard work, and given opportunity after opportunity to succeed. The things and people in my life are good. Good beyond good, in fact. All of this lead me to believe that bad things maybe just didn’t exist. Okay, I recognized that bad things and bad people existed, but I met that existence with the unwavering belief that if you give people enough chances, they won’t disappoint you. Which in turn lead to a whole lot of smiling at strangers, and tiny bits of poetry pasted to my walls, and blind faith in the goodness of others.
For twenty years, an optimistic outlook on life served me well. However, after a recent string of events, I think I’m ready to move past childish optimism and see the world through a more realistic lens. I would like to hang on to unfailing optimism, but I’ve learned that doing this will just hurt you instead of help you. To all my fellow optimists out there, I know this isn’t a fun lesson to learn. People have tried teaching it to me plenty of times before, but it doesn’t stick until your naivety really gets the best of you. Blind positivity has its place of course, but I don’t think young adulthood is where it belongs.
So, for my fellow optimists-turning-realists, here is my advice:
· Meet people with neutrality. Don’t think too highly of anyone before you really get to know them.
· Save your second chances for people who deserve them. Make third and fourth chances a thing of the past.
· Maybe cool it with thinking you can save the world.
· Stop smiling at everything!! Grey skies are not beautiful and dried leaves are not the best thing you’ve ever seen. Accept that almost everything is some degree of mediocre.
Truthfully, my optimism is one of my favorite things about myself, and I’m not sure how I feel about deciding to see the world more realistically. It seems sad and slightly misanthropic, even if that’s not the point of realism. Hopefully some good will come from it! Wait, was that too optimistic? I meant to say, maybe something moderately okay will occur as a direct result of my actions since the world doesn’t give you good things for no reason. :| (Neutral face for neutral feelings about a neutral life.)