Written by Chevon Gilzene

I have come to a point in my life where I am learning not to allow anything that life throws at me to disturb my peace. Take today, for example. I got to class early only to realize that my class had been moved to the other side of campus for the day, had my hair messed up by the wind, ended up being late for class, forgot my phone in the washroom after class and didn’t notice until after arriving at work (late), plus it was raining. But throughout all of this, I was determined to keep a positive outlook. This may seem bizarre to most people — I mean, my day started off horribly — but the way I see it, getting upset wouldn’t make my day any better. I wouldn’t get my phone back by getting mad at the world, and being devastated about my hair certainly wouldn’t fix it. The only thing that could turn my day around is insisting that I remain happy.

This has not always been my outlook on life. Actually, it was quite contrary. My favourite past time was ranting, as most of my friends can confirm, and although I wasn’t a negative person per say, I did allow my emotions to dictate how the rest of my day went. I always secretly envied those who could put a positive spin on anything, but didn’t think I could be one of those people. I’d often tell myself, “That’s just not my personality,” or, “I’m not negative, I’m realistic,” and I was content with that until I eventually got tired of complaining. I just wanted to be happy, and while doing research for my History of Gospel Music class, I came across Kirk Franklin’s at the time new single “Wanna Be Happy.” I listened to it out of curiosity and was really encouraged by the lyrics to take my life into my own hands. I came to the realization that I don’t have to allow outside circumstances to have control over my happiness.

Being positive can be difficult, especially when everything around me seems to say otherwise, but it gets easier everyday as I fill my mind with positive thoughts to replace the negative ones that I used to live by.