Cheetos prove to be catalyst for attitude adjustment

Bailey Garrett, Charger Staff

Once again, I sit in second block with the feeling that hunger is going to overcome me at any moment. I quickly decide that after the bell rings for break that it definitely be snack time.

For the next hour I dream about what I will choose from the wide selection in the vending machines. It doesn’t take long to decide that my fate for snack time will, be, like always, Cheetos.

Finally the bell rings and I rush out in the hallway battling students to be the first one at the machines. I get to the front of the line, place my money in the coin slot and press that fateful number. Then, I watch as the Cheetos begin to ooze toward the front until... uh oh! They don’t come out. My Cheetos are stuck.

Normally this would really bother me. I mean, come on, vending machines should not tease people into thinking that their starvation will finally be cured and then destroy all their hopes and dreams by having their favorite snack get stuck. Normally I would really be bothered by this twist of fate but you see, on this particular day I have made the conscious decision that I am going to have a good day.
I may not have learned much about how to deal with situations, but the one thing that I have learned is that it all depends on your attitude.If you are make that fateful decision that no matter what you are going to stay in a good mood and you are going to have a good day, then you will have a good day.

This past summer when eating at Hyman’s Seafood resturaunt, which supposedly is the best seafood resturant in Charleston, SC, I picked up a business card of sorts and read this message that, even though it sounds extremely cheesy, changed my life. On this card was a excerpt from the book “Attitudes” by Charles Swindoll.

Swindoll talks about how attitude “is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say of do.” He also talks about how a person’s attitude is “more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.” After reading this point I realized that this guy was a genius.

No matter what failures or circumstances you have to overcome, it all depends on how you deal with that situation, your attitude.

Swindoll also says, “The remarkable thing is that we have a choice regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that perople act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.” Swindoll basically says that the only thing we can control is our attitude.

Ever since reading this card, I have become obsessed with my attitude, always concerned about whether or not I am dealing with the situation the right way and whether or not I could have dealt with a situation better if my attitude had been a more positive one.
And then I realized that like Swindoll said, I can’t change the past; I have to focus on life now and worry about whether or not I am dealing with a situation in a positive way now.

Just these few words inspired me that much, and to tell you the truth, they are not even my favorite part of the card. In the very last sentence of the excerpt, I read those words that my friends hate me for and the ones that they say define basically almost everything I talk about, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” I now base my day to day life on these words.

So now, fellow Cookeville High Schoolers, I encourage you to make that step just as I did. I know it sounds cheesy, but those words changed my life. Make the promise to yourself everyday that you are going to have an optimistic attitude and when situations arise don’t worry about what you did wrong, worry about what you can do to make it better.

Copyright 2003 Cookeville High School