Car trips are rough. Anyone who has ever been on one can tell you that. Looking back as a 15 year old, I can remember how much I hated those trips. Hindsight being 20/20, I can understand how much they can teach me, and others. For instance, learning that there is one thing that will make or break a car trip, attitude. Spending hour after hour sandwiched between two screaming, crying, annoying little brothers, I learned to keep positive attitude. Yes they might be family, but even family can turn you insane if you let them. Those trips may have been hell on earth, but they did teach me a valuable lesson, and help me to form a belief about life. I believe in the power of a positive attitude.
Lesson One: A positive attitude is contagious.
During those long hours of nothing but the crops swaying in the breeze and the smoke stack billowing their smog and belching fire into the night on the roads, I learned how to turn a negative situation for the better in the back. If I stayed positive, my brothers tended to stay the same, which calmed my parents down, and made the car ride a whole lot more tolerable. This goes for almost any situation in life. If you keep a positive attitude, it tends to catch on and those around you help make life tolerable.
Lesson Two: A positive attitude seems to mysteriously change situations for the better.
My father called it karma, my mom, God’s blessing. Whether we were stranded with a flat tire in a ditch in the middle of Ireland’s countryside, or what seemed to be hopelessly lost on our way to New Jersey at three in the morning, if we stayed positive, the world seemed to work for us. It doesn’t matter where you’re lost, on a road or on your path to great things, a positive attitude seems to find a way to make things a whole lot better.
Lesson Three: No matter how low you fall, a positive attitude will always pick you up.
While riding in that car hour after tedious hour, I saw a lot of things, some of which lead me to a single truth in my young life. Even if I was too young to understand everything I learned about life and people, I am lucky enough to be able to look back and reflect. I saw first hand, how far a positive attitude can take you. Cal lit karma, destiny, or just coincidence. The effect of a positive attitude, even if it is nothing more then a friendly face on the street, goes a heck of a long way. This I believe.