We all have that one friend or family member that is known to us as the “downer”. The one who is always having a bad day, or a major problem with something. The weather sucks, too many bills, no free time, terrible job etc. It’s amazing that no matter what the circumstances are there’s always some unseen dark cloud that follows this individual around. Most people like this just say that their unlucky or they can’t get a break. I never brought into this theory.

Last night while driving home with two friends a car ran into my own at about sixty miles per hour. Not only did the person driving the vehicle that hit us not stop, whoever it was didn’t even slow down. By the time I figured out what happened they were already a good half mile in front of me, swerving through traffic trying to get away from the scene. The end result was me and my friends waiting on the side of the road for a state trooper, with a car that I would later find out the next day sustained about 2,600 dollars worth of damage to it. After the police report and a little bit of shock and anger I started my slow trip back home praying that my car would be able to make it.

This story I would say to most people seems like I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are not too many people that are involved in  hit and run accidents. Since I got my license at seventeen years old I’ve been in one accident and that just happened to be last night. I was going to leave the game a little early but decided to stay, maybe if I would of left when I was going to I could of avoided the whole thing. Or how about stopping to eat in the area I was in (like I originally planned) instead of trying to head back to my house first. I would of surely not been involved in an accident then. Those two scenarios never crossed my mind. Not right after the accident or the next day. Instead I was thankful.

Thankful for the fact that my friends were alive and safe. Or that I was alert enough to hold on to the steering wheel and not swerve into any other cars (the highway was not empty by any means) How about  that I was driving my SUV and not my wife’s car that would of surely fishtailed on the impact of the hit. What if I would of caught up with the car? (I decided to follow for a little bit to try and get his license plate # before he took off) He was obviously running for a reason, what if he had a gun? That was my mindset. About six people know that it even happened, besides my two friends that were in the car and another close friend I told, just my family knows, and they didn’t find out until this morning. (I didn’t want to freak them out with a late night phone call)

Me and my two friends being alive was enough for me. The fact that no one else was harmed by this accident also made me feel a lot better. Is it going to cost money to get my car fixed? YES is it money that I have just sitting around  my apartment? NO But I ll pay it and make it work somehow, and that’s the difference between the “glass is half full” mindset and the “glass is half empty” one. I believe that when you harp on how many things don’t go your way then even more negative things will come. In basketball we have a saying that we tell the players when they mess up and that’s “Next Play”. We tell them not to dwell on the mistake they just made, because instead of thinking about what they need to do in the present they are still stuck on the mistake in the past and that usually results in what? You guessed it more mistakes!!

We determine what cloud follows us around and for how long. Life is going to throw us some adversity from time to time, thats guaranteed. But we ultimately decide how we deal with it. Believing that something bad is always going to happen to you, will hinder you from seeing the silver lining during tough times. Because there usually is one and when you focus on that, you realize that no matter how bad something is, it could always be worse.