The Power of Positivity

“It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.” - Carl Sagan

Emmons Grade School in Antioch, Illinois has an unhealthy obsession with all school assemblies. Which would be an unfortunate detail of my life even if it wasn’t a K-8 school. But assemblies geared toward your typical third grader are unfortunately more than a sporadic happening in my life. Last Wednesday first grade read us a cute poem and then the police came to do a demonstration with one of their dogs. Cool, but a poor reason to have shortened classes.

The following Thursday I walked in and was informed that the second assembly in as many days would take place in ten minutes and I actually groaned out loud. Before you label me as the most negative and whiny person you’ve ever met, consider what assemblies mean for me. Besides watching an arduous performance typically by lower elementary school students, assembly day schedule means thirty-seven minute class periods. We have one of those every Monday for a late start, and so when you start doing this for any old assembly for any old purpose the days are miserable. Most teachers, understandably, don’t have time to give you less work and homework because someone wanted to come and train dogs for the entire school. I can handle that now and again, but with basketball practice every night and the general events of life, the extra work and stress start to pile up. I’m exaggerating, and if this sounds ridiculous it’s because it’s supposed to, but you get the point. It was a negative thing for me.

I got to the assembly in the gymnasium, joined the eighth-grade section and was confused at what I saw. No Oompa-Loompa third graders sat on the ground, and in fact, the only thing at center stage were five chairs filled with five men dressed in military uniforms and carrying an instrument. Music performance assembly. An hour to listen to them play upbeat songs. Maybe not the greatest use of time, but I LOVE music. The only previous music assembly in my memory was in fifth grade of the “we will get you into band,” variety, and I only remember sitting there and surreptitiously scooting closer and closer to (oh we'll call her) Jane who I was sitting right next to and being pleased that she wasn’t scooting away, so it was a tremendous rarity and I was pretty pumped pretty fast.

We got a great music performance, good performers, learned some interesting information about the Navy and got to salute my friend Evan and his amazing military family, (both parents, and crazy moves) and my foot was tapping the whole time and I was in a delightful mood for the rest of the day. The classes were still short and I still had more work over the next couple of days that I had bargained for. Problems didn’t disappear, but it turned from a largely negative event in my expectations to a largely positive one in actual life.

The point I’m trying to make is this: negativity is useless. It’s something that I struggle with A LOT, and it’s also something that a lot of my peers struggle with and really our first-world society in general. We are trained, and I don’t really know why to react to something new in the most negative way possible. The reality is that negative things do happen, but just because the prospect of something may seem negative at first does not mean it will be. We needn’t spend so much time dreading things that are often out of our control. I’ve learned that life goes on, and often the negativity that we give certain events is tantamount to the negativity you would give to something where death is impending. Life will go on. It won’t be that bad. So there’s no real reason to treat these things with such a tremendous deal of negativity. Often times they turn out far better than we think.

If you are getting really tired of my incessant use of the pronoun “we” in my quote essays, here are some personal examples.

In Kindergarten I DREADED the kickball unit in gym which our PE teacher informed us about to the point of tears on multiple pre-kickball unit occasions, and I ended up loving it and having a great time.

I moved to Avon, Indiana scared and fairly pessimistic and made some of the best friends I’ve ever had, had the best year of my educational career, and met the girl of my dreams.

In fifth-grade, I got in a fight with the aforementioned girl over a broken bracelet and I thought we were doomed and would never talk again. Two weeks later we square danced in gym.

I moved to Georgia with so many negative emotions and so much hate bottled up inside of me and I was blessed with amazing teachers that inspired me and helped me grow, made great friends, and found a church that supported me and helped me grow so much in just a year and a half with my walk with the Lord. I found courage and learned a lot about myself and just being a more respectful person.

This week in math I dreaded doing a group project in my math class because I knew I’d have to ask to be in a group with high school children and I’m the clumsy little eighth grader. But I got in a group with some alumni from my elementary/middle school, had a good conversation and even conceived a good idea for the project, which will represent a good chunk of our grade.

The list could go on and on and it’d go on forever if you included on the dreaded events that just ended with a sigh of relief for survival. To quote Max Lucado, “few monsters warrant the fear we have of them.” We are so quick to freak out, so quick to dread and be negative and it doesn’t pay. Most of the time the worst that happens is it’s a really crappy thing and then life goes on. Take it a day at a time, you’ll get through it. Even if death were really on the table, and absolutely no disrespect is meant by this if it is, because I know there are situations when it really is, it doesn’t do any good to worry about it. Even if the worse that can happen is terrible, sometimes the positive mindset really can help.

We all perform better when we believe that we can do it and have that optimism. It doesn’t guarantee that bad things won’t happen, but it increases our chances of success in most circumstances, and it will never, ever decrease them.

The only caveat, of course, is that you also have to possess a certain degree of realism when you have an open mind. Take gambles, think positively, but don’t be crazy. And when you dig yourself into a hole, when you watch one too many episodes of the Big Bang theory and you’re so far behind, that’s not the time for optimism. It’s not the time for negativity either, but it is the time to put your head down, look at things with an enormous degree of realism and get busy.

But seriously. Let’s break the negativity trend and start keeping an open mind. It makes you happier, improves productivity, and makes the world a better place. And you’ll be surprised to find that the worst casonario won’t happen. You’ll still be alive in the morning. Live will still go on. Think positively.