This is very strange and it always happens in my life.

Let me go straight to the point. Positive thinking never works for me. It is when I lose hope that I find the light at the end of the tunnel. For example, during ARC (Automatic and Robotics Club)’s RoboChallenge competition, my team did very badly. Then they started announcing the winner of the most creative robot, etc. I had hope that we would win one of the weird-weird awards. But nope, we didn’t win any. So I lost hope. I was like “oh well nevermind, we won’t get anything”. Then suddenly, they announced us as the 3rd place in Best Timing Award. I was like “WHAT THE HELL?” because my team’s timing sucks and I never thought that we could win even the third place, after seeing all the other teams’ robot.

It is always like that. When I think everything is gonna be okay, nope, it turns out not okay. But when I curse at something, it turns out to be something enjoyable and fun.

These are the recent examples. The first one is the Hostel Camp. It’s on the same day with CJC Hostel Games and I was supposed to meet my friends there. I tried to make excuses not to go for the Camp, because I was thinking “Why would they make a hostel camp?? Most of the people here are Chinese and they would speak Chinese all the time.” But I was not allowed to not go for the Camp, because the hostel already paid, they said. I cursed all day and night. However, it turned out to be very fun. I met some guys from SMU (Singapore Management University) and had a nice talk with them. I knew more about the JC (especially MJC) students here in Anglican House. Most importantly, I enjoyed the Camp. It was fun.

The second example is the Chinese New Year dinner. I met my friends today, and I was a bit sad because actually I wanted to stay longer with them. But I had this Chinese New Year dinner today, so I must go back to the hostel before 6 pm. I was so not interested in the dinner. I even tweet “I don’t want to go to CNY dinner. I just want to sleep and let tomorrow come.” because I want to meet my friends tomorrow (and they turn out not be able to come). Then I went for CNY dinner, and it turned out to be quite fun because Sanva brought his friend here, and I, being interested in people older than me, had a nice talk with her. I also enjoyed the performances, but what I like the most is the conversation with Sanva’s friend. She is very friendly.

Then after dinner, the MJC people went to Sempang Bedok (if I spell it correctly) and ate something there. I ordered teh tarik. It was a very nice experience. The J2 students were very funny, and I had the chance to know more about them. Overall, it was very fun. I wonder what will happen if I decided to skip CNY dinner and go sleeping.

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Okay, so my point is, don’t put positive thinking like “oh it will be fun” because it brings high expectation. When it turns out that it’s not fun, you will be disappointed, and disappointment will only leave bad memories. Try to think something like “I don’t think it is going to be fun” aka try to put negative thinking. In that way, when something good happens, you will be able to appreciate it and not take it for granted.

So basically, to have more fun in life, I try to nurture negative thinking before I start doing something.

But the most important thing is your attitude. To be able to have fun in spite of all your negative thoughts, you have to respond with positive attitude. Instead of being a grumpy person, try to put a positive attitude in everything you do and enjoy every single thing that happens in your life.