Short Story

Today I've got an interesting story and a moral. All of this is true.

My parents have always gotten mad at me for not trying my best at school. I get mad at them for getting mad at me and punishing me too much. They get mad at me for arguing back. I get mad at them for that. Its a really bad cycle that I've been in for quite some time. Today, they got mad at me for my grades. I never was too disappointed in my performance, but I was disappointed in the fact that every time that we have this talk, I get in trouble and lose a privilege. And that's the cycle.

Since my post on optimism and pointing out the good things, I got angry once more with my parents, because they only were pointing out the bad things about my grades. They would talk about one bad grade that I had, despite all of my other 'A's. Why couldn't they give me the slightest bit of positive feedback?

I found myself at a loss in that conversation and I realized that I've always been the kid that's really smart but never really cared about his grades. I skated by through all of my classes with okay grades. And then I thought, "Why not be the kid that's really smart and gets really good grades?" After that I realized that I should just do both. Although I never liked homework, after doing my studies today, and all of my homework, that I would usually lack to do, I felt good.

If that isn't enough of a philosophical breakthrough for me, as I was studying my spelling for Friday's test, my sister came in my room. I never really liked my sister all too much. She always seemed like she said a whole novel about every good thing good that you did. She continued to praise how I manage a job and schoolwork, and do quite well on all of my tests. But then I thought something really important that I think we can all learn from.

You can always find positive feedback, you just have to open up and listen for it.