Glass Half Full, Or Half Empty?

When I was a child, most of the stories or situations I have been through was, mostly, my dad hitting me and my parents fighting constantly; so pretty much I did not really grew up watching Barney, traveling to places, and going to Disneyland often. I thought I would have to live like this for the rest of my academic life, but one day around the age of eight, my dream came true. My parents had enough of each other, so they went their own ways; even though, I was glad that I do not have to life miserably anymore, I was not. I thought that everything would settle down and live a calm life with my mom, but as a result, I ended up raising my two siblings. My dad left the house, my mom was in her own world, and I had to watch my siblings. I thought my parents divorce would benefit me, but all it did was for me to not live as an eight-year-old would. I thought that my dream of going to a great university and becoming a Physician Assistant came crashing down. A couple weeks later, my dad came back and long-story short, my siblings and I had to go hang out with my dad for

My motto is “Whatever happens is for the best”. I really believe that. And this belief always helps me to overcome some difficulties. In tight situations, I prefer to elicit positive sides and forget about negative ones. And it works! When my parents divorced and everything seemed to me terrible, especially my mom’s new boyfriend, I told myself: “My mother was unhappy last years of her marriage, she gave to me and to my sister everything she had. She is the nearest and the dearest person for us in the whole world. So, my mom deserves to be really happy.” And my mother’s boyfriend became a new member of our family, he’s great, I really loved him. I’m happy to see my mother’s eyes radiating love and joy.

Everything is perfectly fine, everything is great, then one day it all comes crashing down and shattered pieces are left. My life would never be the same but I guess change is for the best and it forced me to become the person I am today. It’s rough to be the oldest child, especially when your mom is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and you have 3 younger sisters that look to you for comfort when their mom can’t be there. When the cancer is spread throughout your moms body doctors can’t just get rid of it no matter how badly you wish they could. Rounds of chemotherapy only slow it down, yet it’s still there a lurking monster waiting to reappear at any given moment. Nothing can even begin to describe the fear I felt, and still have to deal

Especially because I don't want you to end up like me.” The conversation is still fresh in my memory and tears form in the corner of my eyes when I think about it. My mother was aware that her life was no walk in the park and I think that's what hurt me the most. I would never want my children to see me in such a state that I've seen my mother in. At the same time I would want her to see that hard work truly pays off. A miracle is just another word for the result of hard work. Some people are born with silver spoons in their mouth and I've seen how meaningless their lives turn out to be. My mother proved to me that your struggles make you stronger and define who you are. Struggling is almost impossible to avoid and rather than sulking about it, I'd rather use it to make me a stronger person, like my mom

I had no hopes or dreams growing up. I never thought too much about the future as a child. I lived from day to day just waiting for one to finish and another to begin. I grew up in this fashion and did not change at all until middle school. By middle school, I was aware that life did not revolve around school and that there were expectations for me to meet. Both parents and teachers expected me to rise above and beyond. Now my reason for waking up every day and working hard was to meet these expectations. I worked hard to keep up with the expectations, though eventually, the young child that I was could no longer handle the stress of all the work and slipped into melancholy. It was an endless cycle of work, failure, and shame. This continued until I graduated and went off to high school.

You know growing up I never had a “fairytale” childhood. My parents fought, my sisters and I didn’t get along. Yes, I know that we had good times. I am aware of that. But it just got really hard some days. And that is what threw me into a funk. Then when I

As life progressed for my mother and she entered into her teenage years, life had more challenges in store. The death of my grandfather occurred when she

There is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment after successfully achieving a goal or task without encountering failure. Many may say that happiness is success without having to deal with the problem of disappointment. But what if that idea of happiness is the exact opposite of what it really is? What if the true path to contentment is learning how to be a failure? In the article Happiness is a glass half empty, the author establishes the misconception of how happiness is portrayed by society through irony, antithesis, and by using analogies in order to get the reader thinking about the idea of how failure is the main step to reaching success.

When I was younger, I thought as an adult you had to be successful in everything you did to be happy. When I got older I realized you can learn about yourself through trial and error and it’s okay to be unsure. Nobody knows for sure what the future will hold, but the things we do today can affect us later on.

I am Alyssa DeLillo. Growing up I have lived a decent life. I was raised in a good household, tried to always keep people happy, and made lots of friends. Up until the age of eight I lived in a small city in California. I had the best parents and grandparents a child could ask for. At a young age though, I lost my father to a heart condition that couldn’t be controlled. At the time of it happening I didn’t understand what was going on but later as I got older my mother explained it to me. For a while, it was all I could think about and it still sits in the back of my thoughts but, I learned to move on and to cope with the sad thoughts. I reminded myself I still had my mom.

I consider myself to be a “Tigger” being an optimist. In my opinion, my dad had quite an influence in shaping my character more towards a “Tigger” than an “Eeyore”, who is a pessimist. Actually, on occasions, I still feel pessimistic during certain circumstances and can remember feeling that way sometimes when I was younger. I feel in a way, I may perhaps been “molded” or influenced by some people to be an optimist. The main person who shaped me into a “Tigger is my dad, however, ever since I was really young, my dad would encourage me even when I knew he was actually disappointed at me. This didn’t mean he didn’t scold me for wrong deeds I have done or not to be frank about the faults I had. From time to time, he would remind me “it is better

As a child I used to believe that my life could not get any better because at the age of 6, I had everything that I ever wanted. I was the center of attention and my parents always had enough time to play with me. I always received the most expensive toys, dolls and clothes from my relatives and cousins. I was also brash and troublesome, purposely placing my older siblings in trouble whenever they made me cry or when they don’t follow the things I wanted them to do. In short, I had the life of a very spoiled, stubborn and ignorant child but nevertheless, I used to believe that my life was perfect. That was before my parents told me that I was having a younger sibling.

My life has been a crazy roller coaster with many events that have affected my life all in different ways. There have been times where my life has been at its highest peak in the world then it falls down, right into a deep valley. From the time my lovable younger sister came into my life to when my grandpa had a near death experience, I have learned many valuable lessons through the rough times as well as the more happy times. When I was a young girl, my mom had always told me the same thing over and over again. I never really thought about how a few words would have a deep effect on me in a short amount of time.

As I take a look back on my life, I realize how great it has truly been. I had an absolutely amazing childhood and I am beyond blessed for it. I grew up in a home with two loving parents that have been with me through it all and now of days that is something to be truly thankful for. My parents taught me to strive to be anything that I wanted and that I could be anything that I set my mind to. These dreams changed throughout my life as I grew older and as I grew into the person that I am today.

There are good days and bad days but sometimes bad more than good. When we focus on the bad days that takes away the positive things in life. I have the world's best parents all they want to see me do is succeed but I have let them down. It makes me mad when I let my parents down because I know I could do better but I do not. When I was younger I was depressed and was not happy. My mom tried so many different counselors and nothing ever worked. No one could change me I had to change myself.