Bad Days Can Only Be Fought With or Against Cupcakes

One strength I know I have is positivity. I'd like to think of myself as a generally happy, optimistic person. Even when things are going bad, I try to stay calm and find the good in the situation (hence why my blog posts are usually about stressful situations told in a way to make my reader smile). However, I am human, and sometimes I just have those days where it is so hard to be in a good mood.

Last week, I had one of those days. It all started when the alarm on my cell phone did not wake me. This could have resulted in me setting the alarm wrong, not setting the alarm at all, turning the alarm off in my sleep, or hitting the snooze button. This rarely happens, but when it does happen, it can cause for disaster with me oversleeping.

After the panic sets in, I run around trying to decide what to do first. When I finally come up with a plan of action, something that is so miniscule and inconceivable always happens that just adds more opposition to the day.

On this particular day, I managed to get ready and ended up being approximately seven minutes late for my literature class. Luckily, it was a Friday, and that meant the class was divided into small groups that met in various rooms and were lead by a TA. My TA, Jake, is actually a really cool guy. In fact, we have another class, creative writing, together. Therefore, he was nice enough to fill me in on the quiz questions I had missed.

At this point, I was trying to be happy. I was glad there was a noise that woke me up. I was glad that Jake was awesome enough to give me the quiz. I was confident because I had done the readings for the quiz. This feeling quickly went away once the quiz was administered.

Just like that, I had blanked. I stared aimlessly as I hoped the answer would just come to me. I knew the overwhelming feeling from this morning's events was keeping me from being able to think straight. The answer never did come, and I knew Jake was watching me to see when I was ready for the next question. I scratched something down. Jake moved on to the next question. I ended up only getting two out of four questions right. For a Dean's List student like me, this was unacceptable.

I tried to keep my positive attitude though. I knew that the quiz was only worth four points, and I had done well on everything else in the class. I eventually convinced myself that all was okay.

My positive attitude was quickly demolished when I headed to my next class, Christian beliefs. Our professor announced he was handing back our exams. I was slightly nervous about this because I didn't study as much as I would have liked. I also hadn't felt extremely confident when I was taking the exam. I was wrong. I shouldn't have been slightly nervous. I should have been EXTREMELY nervous.

Finding the good in this situation was a little more difficult. I told myself that our professor drops the lowest exam grade, so I would just have to be beast at the other exams. However, this was really depressing.

After chapel, I was walking back to my apartment. I was still feeling slightly down, but I was still trying to convince myself things would be okay.

At this point, a girl I knew approached me. She started a conversation with me, and I was thankful for this. I thought it would be a good opportunity to build my friendship with her. This proved to be a fail.

With this, I had two options if I wanted to be heard. One was to sound like a self-wallowing, narcissistic pessimist as I tried to cut in with how everything in life is out to destroy my soul.

My other option was to turn into a giant, self-absorbed monster that was bent on sucking all happiness from the world.

I decided that neither one of those options were of my character, so I just said bye and walked away.

After venturing a little further down, I realized that I was very sore from working out earlier in the week. Running around this morning trying to make it to class on time probably hadn't helped the soreness. I didn't realize how sore I was until another friend stopped me.

As unfortunate as it was to hear that I wasn't walking normally, it was nice to have someone care and take note that I was having a crummy day. This gave me enough strength to make it back to my apartment with a smile.

I entered the apartment with a positive attitude, and I walked back to my room. This is where I saw it.

I looked at the bag in a confused manner for a minute. Then, I had a flashback to what my roommate, Jennifer, had told me right before I left chapel.

This information had not registered with me since I was kind of down when Jennifer had told me this news. Now that I was much happier and the bag was in sight, it was great news.

This was it! The key to joy and ecstasy was in my hand and ready to enter my digestive system. Then, something I swore could only happen in movies when a character was facing a moral dilemma happened to me.

I couldn't believe it! My morals were so committed to this diet that I had made in front of Nick Wright that I was going to have "ghost Nick" follow me around every time I was about ready to eat something I shouldn't eat. I contemplated my next move.

I knew what I had to do.

Frustrated, I crawled into bed. All good feelings were now gone! I couldn't believe I had just let a cupcake live all because I gave my word and committed to being healthy. Between my tears, my random shouts of frustration, and the scoffing cries from the cupcake, I tried to fall asleep.

Eventually, I was able to fall asleep. Once I awoke from my nap, I was feeling a lot better about things. I was actually really proud of myself for not giving into the temptation of the cupcake. It takes a lot to uphold to promises you've made to others, but it takes a whole lot more to uphold promises you've made to yourself.

I learned that if you have a goal, let nothing stop you. You are strong enough to obtain it. Nothing can stop you! Not even a series of bad events or a cupcake! I also learned that in every bad circumstance, there is always something good in it. It may be hard to see, but it is there.

As for the war against the cupcake, I WAS NOT defeated. I told Nick about my epic battle against the cupcake, and I was permitted to eat said cupcake. Nick said it could be my cheap snack. Therefore, I destroyed said cupcake in such a manner that it had no choice but to surrender to death by my mouth.