I was stuck in a traffic jam this morning and my commute took a good 30 minutes longer than it normally does. Man, was I steamed. My Friday was already off to a bad start. Why must everyone go to work at the same fricken time as me? That’s what played over and over again in my head the whole way to work. When I finally arrived, late, I was pretty ticked off. As I was getting ready to bitch to one of my coworkers about the stupid traffic jam, I learned what had happened. Evidently there had been an accident further on down the road, beyond my turn off, where a pedestrian was crossing and got hit by a car. The pedestrian was killed! My coworker actually saw the lifeless body.

At that point, I bit my tongue. I quickly realized that I had absolutely nothing to bitch about. God forbid I had to sit in traffic for 30 minutes, while someone else lost their life. That person will never again be able to enjoy everything I take for granted on a daily basis. Was my morning really that bad? I got to spend a little more time in my nice new car listening to the radio. That equates to less time at my crappy job. But is my job really all that crappy? Well…actually, yeh it is! But, my point is how pathetic am I to wine about the traffic, when at least I’m alive. Now if only I could act like it more often, instead of dragging my lifeless zombie corpse around everywhere I go.

So keep that in mind the next time you think you’re having a bad day. Perhaps instead of bitching about it, you should just be thankful you are alive in this moment in time. Don’t waste it by focusing on negative thoughts toward things in the past or that you have no control over. I do this all the time and what good does it do me? Except feed my ulcer and ensure that I’ll be dead by age 35, my life expectancy at this point. From this day forth, I am going to spend less time angry at things and appreciate life more damnit! It makes me so damn angry that I get angry about this crap. No no Zack, calm down, that’s the old you talking. Deep breaths now.

I’ll just smile and turn up the music in a traffic jam from now on. As anyone who knows me could tell you, I am the last person on earth that should be giving advice about being happy. I let everything get to me. If someone doesn’t laugh at one of my jokes, for example, I’ll spend the rest of the day plotting their death and making it look like an accident. Ah-hem, that was a joke people. Oh, that’s it, you’re dead! Anyways, I think many of us could probably spend less time being angry/depressed/zombies and more time celebrating life! This is obvious advice, but it never hurts to be reminded now and again that you are, in fact, ALIVE. So why not act like it?