Can I have a do-over?

As I contemplate the day gone by and begin to write something to be read tomorrow, one word keeps coming to mind:

Melancholy.

Today was not the greatest of days. The workload was massive and hectic. The weather was gloomy and dismal. Even lunch was a greasy double-cheeseburger from McDonald’s. (Hard to argue with the dollar menu, though.) Scrubs, the show I feel could always pick me up was a bit of a “downer” episode, too. It’s as if there was nothing I could do to make today better.

It got me to thinking…how could the day have been different? If I had made some different choices, could Thursday, March 1, 2007 have been better than the way it turned out to be?

Some might say, “No way. Look at all that happened to you. You’re a victim of your circumstances.” (Seriously, who talks like that?) I think, however, that it could have been different. I could have made some different choices. The choices that I could have changed were with my attitude.

In another, what I am starting to think as, classic “I hate my brain” moment, I am remembering something that one of my teachers in high school did. At the time I thought he was nuts. I remember it clearly. He was a first year teacher, so he didn’t quite seem all that organized. He began the class by calling roll. He handed out a syllabus (a hilarious word, by the way), and then he handed out another sheet of paper. This sheet of paper had one sentence written on it in big, bold, capital letters:

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.

That’s it. It said no more. He then went on to talk about how good and bad things happen to all of us each and every day. It is how we respond to those things that matters. I remember thinking at the time, “Why did he waste all that time and hand out this stupid sheet of paper? This guy is never gonna make it as a teacher.”

Here it is…many, many years later and that moment sticks out in my mind. The kicker is that I know what he said is true. Everybody has their “ups and downs,” but not everybody bounces back from the “downs” so well. How you choose to bounce back is completely up to you. You can either let yourself be victimized or you can take control and turn things for the positive. It is in your hands.

Me? I’m going to choose “up.” Tomorrow is another day, and you know what, it’s going to rock.

Bring it on.

Much luv,
Rob
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Song of the Day: “Fool in the Rain” by Led Zeppelin