Hi, I am Matt, and I am an optimist.

I have had this inclination for as long as I can remember, believing things will end up sunny side up at the end of the day. I don’t know where it started, but this star-studded disposition makes life burn with a flair, but I run into trouble.  You see, my primary interest is people, and people rarely act according to the way optimists ( including myself) think they will.

Learning about human nature has a way of changing people.  The more I learn about others, the more people puzzle me.  I frequently have a hard time being an optimist about people. Psychology tells me people will do anythings to lessen discomfort and maximize reward. Pushing themselves into situations or attitude that they have learned over the course of their lifetime to get what they want from the world. Finding ways to make the world better for them, to cope with their surroundings and when those surroundings clash, the meeting of these two opposite winds create tornadoes for all to see. Destroying and building debris for all to see. Now it doesn’t necessarily work out, but mainly people will follow that. A pattern of behaviors that is observed quantified and calculated. My optimistic side tells me that people will do the right thing, help others, be able to find that happiness, and solve all their problems. That there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and a new brighter future awaits everyone. That you won’t be stuck in the same cycles of hate forever as long as you are willing to break them.  I frequently find myself at a crossroads of what to think about people. On one hand, they can follow what psychology tells me about people will do, the other what I hope people will do, and seldom are they the same.

This problem I face in this is unyielding. It makes me question whether or not I am wrong to feel the way I feel about the world.  Lots of people and events cloud my mind about the sometimes shallow and cruel nature of the world. I get confused about what I should believe. Looking back about all the bad things that have happened to me it’s easy to become jaded and beat down.   I’m not one to stick to a belief if it doesn’t make sense, and “realism” is just so much easier.  It’s hard to be an optimist, but I can’t help that I want to believe in the good in people, that the world is a great and beautiful place.  It’s tough when time after time things don’t work out, and it wears on me. When people and expectations fall short. To keep believing when others say I should stop.

It’s Tough to be an Optimist, but I really wouldn’t have it any other way. I believe that at the end of the day I will be happier and others will be too. I have hope.