Pessimism and Ex Boyfriends

Have you ever been excited about something that was a huge risk? Like going to a college with a huge tuition looming over your head when your family has no money what-so-ever? Or maybe a job that you don't seem suited for, or maybe a trip that just doesn't seem like it's worth it. This world is filled with risks, sometimes it can even be a risk to breath! With people today, it's hard to tell what is a risk and what isn't.

I may only be eighteen years old, but I have seen my share of the world. Now, I realize I don't know everything, I haven't heard both sides to every story, and definitely that I still have so much to learn that my head would probably pop off with the knowledge of just what I could learn. There is no limit to what one can learn, but it is probably impossible to learn everything in the time we have. However, I ask, 'who's stopping you from trying?'

In my experience, pessimists are only a handful of people keeping others from doing what they want to do. People care so much about what the people they love think, and the people they trust, but they don't take into account, 'well, this person always looks on the negative side... may I should just do what my heart is telling me.' I have learned that to succeed, there will always be risk involved. If I did what a negative person said, and not risk it, then well, I would never get anything done.

Taking into account my last boyfriend had been a pessimist, I think I can safely say, I am much better without him. Some of the worries he had created were largely unneeded. Now, I know no one else cares if I found someone I liked in college, but that was his main concern. ‘You’ll find someone else, you’ll forget about me, you won’t have time to talk to me.’ Of course I may not be able to talk to him all the time, but I’m not going to college for a date, I’m going to learn, and that means studying.

Plus I just plain got tired of hearing, ‘this won’t happen. My mom hates me. I’m going to cut myself, I bashed myself in the head with a hammer.’ Did I say I never appreciated liars either? You couldn’t trust a word he said. That wasn’t because he was a pessimist though, that was just because he was untrustworthy.

So why do we continue to listen to these live negative consciousnesses? They are close to us, that is why. Sometimes we have to take our lives into our own hands, and tell them, ‘I will never know unless I try.’ It took a while, but my parents, (now divorced for six months) are trying to work together to help get the loans for college. I myself am filling out applications and writing essays for scholarships as fast as I can. It helps to be optimistic, to look on the bright side and encourage others to do the same. In the end, you may or may not have taken a needless risk, but at least you know you did something to better your life. I feel that is the most important lesson in not listening so closely to someone’s opinion. In the end, it’s our life, they can’t run it, only you yourself can run it, and the decisions and paths you take are your choice.