by Pat Ballard

Created on: October 17, 2009   Last Updated: October 20, 2009

ATTITUDE

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems,
but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
Herm Albright

When I was in high school there was a particular classmate who would send me very negative vibes each time our eyes met. Now, I didn't know this girl and couldn't figure out why she was going out of her way to let me know that she didn't like me. She never said anything to me; she just glared at me a lot. This was a highly unusual quandary for me to have to deal with, as most people either liked me or were just indifferent to me. But not open hostility!

One day she and I happened to be the only ones in the restroom, so I just asked her if I'd ever done anything to make her dislike me. She said, and I quote, "You walk down the hall with a smile on your face like you know something that nobody else knows." Trying to hide my surprise and relief that this was all there was to it I explained to her that I just tried to be friendly with everyone.

Well, it didn't take her long to tell me that her parents were having marital problems and she was very upset and unhappy. So I had to assume that my happy smile each day was annoying her because she was so unhappy. After that, we became fairly good friends. At least, good enough that she would talk with me each day about her situation. I had the good fortune of becoming someone, maybe the only one, she could "unload" on.

In the years since that incident, when I run across people who don't respond to my quick, open smile, I've tried to remind myself that this person may be going through a very trying time in their lives, and that I don't need to take offense when they don't respond to me as I think they should.

But sometimes, if they have an exceptionally bad attitude, I yearn to remind them of what Abraham Lincoln said: "People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

The attitude with which we approach life really can make a difference in how we deal with problematic situations that arise. It has been proven that even a fake smile can make us feel better. So lift the corners of that mouth a little and you might feel a lot better.

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