You Take the Good, You Take the Bad...

A few days ago, I heard a compelling NPR Morning Edition report on the alarming number of U.S. soldiers committing suicide, while in Iraq or after returning home. If I remember correctly, the number of suicides was close to 100 (sadly, I have not been able to verify this anywhere). This heartbreaking statistic is mentioned so infrequently and yet it speaks volumes about the emotional toll this war has taken on our troops.

For me, such sad morsels of news are invaluable in helping me keep a realistic, positive perspective on my own life, even in the face of such personal catastrophes as the one I faced last week, when my wallet and MP3 player were brazenly stolen from my backpack while I attended to lonely cats at the SPCA shelter.

Yes, I can think of about a trillion ways to have better spent the hours I logged on the phone, canceling credit cards and making appointments to get a new driver's license, health insurance card and student ID. And yet, I was not robbed at gunpoint, my home was not violated and nothing of any real value was taken, aside from a good chunk of my trust in human nature.

No hay mal que por bien no venga: one of my new favorite Spanish sayings. Roughly translated, it means "There is no bad from which good does not come." Or something like that.

My mother said this to me when, three days after the unfortunate backpack pilfering, I called her with some fantastic news: I've been awarded the 2007 Merit Scholarship by the Society for Technical Communication. Receiving word that I'd won was a particularly proud moment for me, considering the rough road I've traveled, both financially and emotionally, for my education. I worked my little tail off putting the application together last month (with the help of my amazing sister) and seeing my efforts pay off has been incredibly rewarding. I'm especially happy to add this distinction to my resume and am nervously excited for the award presentation next month. Of course, the award will come in very handy with school expenses for this semester (including a replacement MP3, though my sensible side urges me to downgrade a bit).

Having such a low point followed so quickly by such a high point has been a valuable experience for me, in terms of embracing optimism in the face of being dealt a crappy hand. For someone who walks everywhere, being without a music source has, for lack of a better word, pretty much sucked. But then again, I've heard things on my daily walk to work or at the gym or scuttling about town that I would not have heard had I been deeply engrossed in some random melody or news broadcast. Being tuneless has opened my eyes (one would think it'd be my ears, but not so!) to things I'd have otherwise missed. And, surprisingly, I've welcomed the intrusion, as it's given me a welcome, fresh perspective on the world around me.

Posted by ayelet at January 25, 2007 10:11 AM