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FEATURED ARTICLES           Wednesday, September 08, 2010                                Email to a Friend

When the Glass Is Half Empty

Lucy Paz

Recently, I was driving home from work, seething in my usual traffic road rage, when an annoyingly perky voice started counting off the many reasons why pessimists generally live a much harder life. A reason being that pessimistic parents may cause a child to neglect their school work, thus being forced to spend more money on tutors then say, “Susie Sunshine”.  “Ludicrous!” I thought. I glared at my radio. As a self- proclaimed pessimist, I am used to others bashing the fact that my glass is always half empty. However, despite desperate pleas from loved ones to walk over to the bright side, I have yet to sway from my cynical ways, even when a previous boyfriend broke up with me because he felt that my “negative energy” was bringing him down. To be frank, I think my pessimism has actually assisted me during the course of my life, and in spite of the supposedly known and valid fact that pessimistic attitudes eventually take a toll on the immune system, (which could probably be why I am always sick) I happen to think that my negativity is generally harmless and at times, somewhat amusing.

For instance, the little antagonistic devil perched on my shoulder has become rather useful when things in life take a turn for the worse.  The negative voice buzzing about in my head has allowed me to expect the unexpected, thus making it easier to hurdle through whatever obstacle is thrown my way. In terms of amusement, my supposedly harmful attitude will always, without fail, trigger my mind to race through all the god awful possibilities that may result from a single action, each one more horrifying then the next. Take a simple everyday experience such as misplacing one’s set of house keys. Before I even search the next possible place my keys could be hiding, I have already imagined my house being broken into, all my possessions being stolen and my furious mother forking over hundreds to have the locks changed Oh the joys of being me. So I may not be the biggest ball of sunshine but I am sure that there are others out there like me. Others who are plagued by the inherently negative spark burning inside of them, even though I have never personally met such a person. I am quite confident that society has driven us pessimists to hide under a rock, ashamed enough to disguise our real identities. This, in effect, has caused us to appear as a rare breed who should, if found, be converted onto the side were the jolly souls reside. Validation of society’s attitude towards pessimistic people can be found by simply typing in the word “pessimistic” on to a Google search. The various hits appearing on your screen will speak about the negative effects “this condition” can have on your physical and mental well-being. Not far down below you’ll even find a list of suggestions that are aimed at remedying your “self- destructive” outlook on life, no doubt an attempt to further extinct those brave souls who admit their pessimistic tendencies. However, even if all the “experts” on human attitudes are correct in their views of the downfalls of pessimism, it’s presence at least makes me and others like me, unique. More importantly, it makes me who I am, and after living for twenty-one years I’m thinking that being me is not all that bad.

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