Positivity

I have been in a shit mood most of this year. Largely work-related, somewhat missing home-related, partly just being a cynical bitch. I have also found a great volume of stuff on the internet to reinforce my increasingly-strongly held suspicion that people are mostly selfish bastards, and that there is not much good in the world. FML, passive-agressive notes, It Was Over When..., Perez Hilton and various other celebrity gossip websites are all on my list of daily internet activities, and they are all full of bad stories, sad endings and people treating each other badly.

Someone referred me to GMH (Gives Me Hope)

last week on twitter, citing the site's tagline line of "Like FML, but for optimists". I clicked through, and started reading. And reading. And reading. I had the site open in a browser window for days, reading snippets whenever I had a few spare minutes, before I finally lost my place. I had tears in my eyes many times while reading (shut up, I'm allowed), and it really made me want to be a better person. It has really changed my outlook (at least for the short term), and made me feel like there are some good people hiding somewhere in the world. I am inspired to try to help people and just reading other people's stories of positivity have made me feel a lot more positive. Isn't that lame? But it's true. I'm going to listen to more happy songs, read more happy stories and never go near a forum again.

On a side note, I found it interesting that most of the GMH stories start with terrible things happening - sickness, death, lost jobs - but people's perspective on others actions or outlooks make these stories uplifting. In contrast, lots of FMLs seem to be set in happy or potentially happy situations - dates, weddings, or just every day life.