Up to You

Jerry was the kind of guy who was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say.

One day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood.”

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. It’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I changed my job. We lost touch. Several years later, I heard that Jerry was robbed and was shot. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “I feel really good.”

I asked him what had gone through his mind when he was taken to the hospital.

Jerry replied, “The first thing came to my mind was that I should have closed the back door. Then I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could to die. I choose to live.”

Jerry continued, “The nurse kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses scared me. In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, a nurse asked if I was allergic to anything,” said Jerry, “‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses were waiting for my reply…I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘ I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live positively.