Perspective

I've been thinking about perspective a lot recently. My perspectives on situations influence my feelings or thoughts on a situation so easily. It is best summed up in one of my favorite quotes I first came across in one of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants novels: "The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem." Obviously, this doesn't work for all problems and sometimes more mental complexities prevent a change of perspective. But when I can change the way I feel about a situation to better myself, I should.
When I have a bad day, I have a bad day. I wallow in it and whatever made my day bad has obliterated any chance of the day being redeemed. But that's such a detrimental way for me to think. For example, yesterday was a bad day. Horrible even. For six years, I've been working towards an internship with a company I love. They have internships every summer for upperclassmen and college graduates. I only became eligible a couple years ago, but the past few years have unfortunately had unforeseen circumstances preventing me from applying. This year I was very determined. Nothing was going to interfere with me applying. I've made strides and put in a lot of effort this year to make myself as desirable as possible when applying for the internship. Yesterday, the company announced they were cancelling their summer internship for this year and would be revamping it in the future to only be for MBA students (which was not my degree). I was devastated yesterday. Six years of aspirations and goals dissipated in an instant. I only focused on my dream being crushed. I allowed myself to wallow in my heartbreak instead of acknowledge that this could be a good thing. For example, I'm incredibly indecisive. I am interested in so many things and career paths. This door closed, but maybe it will help the decision for my future become clearer.

I was so upset yesterday that I thought I would wake up today and continue wallowing. But then I woke up to snow falling. I live in a place where it hardly snows. The people here aren't accustomed to it, so everything closes with the threat of wintry precipitation. My office was closed, so I didn't go to work. Therefore, I'm losing money I desperately need. Instead of focusing on that and allowing it to continue dampening my mood, I instead reflected on how special the snow was. Snow is so rare here and I love snow. So, I instead appreciated the snow and its beauty, and it completely changed the way my day went. My perspective on the situation made all the difference. I wish I'd realized that yesterday.
Bad days are very rarely all bad. When things falter and take a turn for the worse, I need to reflect on my day and find something good that happened. Because almost always something good happens everyday. I need to find that thing(s) that were good and cling to them. I've found they can change my outlook and make the bad days less bad. Fewer bad days mean more good days, and more good days mean a happier, more positive Hannah. And that's definitely something I want to strive for.