This article was originally published prior to June 2, 2013. Due to a change in the content management systems, the initial publication date in not available. 

The glass is half-empty.

If you asked me the whole “is the glass half-empty or half-full” question, that’s the answer I would give you.

That’s because, even though I’m usually a happy-go-lucky type person, I’m very pessimistic and usually find myself only complaining about the bad things of the day. Like having to take a test, or having an overabundance of homework, or getting up for what I would consider an “early” class.

But in the past few days, I’ve had a rather instant revelation.

Let me tell you a little story about how this revelation came to place.

A couple weeks ago, one of my cousins, who is actually not too much older than me, had a hemorrhage, causing him to have a stroke. It completely shocked me.

In the days after this happened, for a while it didn’t look hopeful. Thankfully, his condition has and continues to improve every day, but it will still take him years to get back to the person he was.

Just think, life for him and his family and friends completely changed in that one minute when it happened. In only 60 seconds things were no longer the same.

Suddenly a test or a late night studying isn’t so bad.

But they have found the strength through God and prayer to look past all that, and focus on how every day he gets a little bit better. They do that instead of concentrating all their energy on why this happened to him. Because, of course, that won’t help him get any better.

A phrase I hear a lot is “everything happens for a reason.” And that really is the truth. What may seem like a bad thing at first could reap some good. So you shouldn’t complain prematurely about the so-called “bad” things in your life.

But I’m not innocent of this. I catch myself all the time complaining about everyday little stuff. Things like having to wake up at 8:30 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for class.

Instead of complaining about having to get up early, I should feel happy I was blessed to have another day on earth. There has never been a guarantee that when I go to bed, I will wake up. Some people, including me, take that for granted.

So if all you do is complain about every single thing that goes wrong, how do you ever enjoy life?

Instead of focusing on the bad, embrace the good. That’s how you truly enjoy life.

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who could truly enjoy all that life has to offer by being pessimistic. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten anything positive out of being pessimistic, except maybe being positively down in the dumps.

So from now on, I’m going to try to see the glass as half-full.

You should really try the drink of optimism. It tastes pretty darn good.