The 5 Biggest Letdowns Of Being An Optimist

If you’re not the eternal optimist in your friend group, chances are you still know who it is. This ray of sunshine greets everyone with a smile and always puts their best face forward. They believe in the innate good in the people that surround them, and are always sure that today is a great day to have a great day!

Optimists, however, can also cross the line between hopefulness and foolhardiness realfast It’s easy to take a great attitude one step too far and just end up a little disappointed.

If you’re an optimist, it may not be easy to keep your chin up every day, but it’s just in your nature. You can’t pretend there isn’t a downside to the bright side sometimes, and it can be sort of funny.

Here are five things that I — an admitted optimist — have experienced within the last month alone.

1. When you wave and smile at someone on the street and they don’t acknowledge you.

I can’t decide what’s worse — smiling at a friend and realizing they don’t see you or screaming your friend’s name and realizing they don’t hear you. Probably the screaming. No, wait, it’s waving at a passing stranger and realizing that they were waving to the person behind you. No, wait, the worst is smiling at a stranger and just trying to spread some positivity in this cold, cruel world, and having them straight-up ignore you. Like, okay. Nevermind! Sorry!

2. When you think your essay idea is amazing…

But, after hours and hours of writing, you end up looking at it and thinking, Well, great, I’m illiterate. Or, even worse, you get a bomb semi-anecdotal idea for a research paper and then realize — only after searching the library high and low — that your idea doesn’t actually have a wealth of research-backed evidence. Nothing kills a positive vibe more than realizing that you’re not as smart as you thought you were.

3. Building up crushes before you realize that they’re actually terrible people.

🎶 Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme — a disappointing crush. 🎶 You know the drill, people, you see a fine, fine guy or gal or whoever in your class, “Dang, that’s someone I could definitely marry right on the spot.” Two weeks later, you realize that not only are they horrible at being productive group project members, but they also probably litter and disrespect their mothers. Sometimes, optimism verges into the realm of bad judgement and unrealistic daydreams. It’s OK, we’ve all been there.

4. Also, getting your hopes up about every party you go to.

The realist in you is always in the back of your mind reminding you — Hey, buddy. it’s not like all your dreams are gonna come true tonight. You’re probably just gonna end up nauseous at a Qdoba — but your optimistic nature bulldozes right over that and into the part where you build up how exciting and awesome this weekend’s parties are gonna be. That illusion is all shattered come Sunday morning. But hey! Monday is a new start, am I right?!

5. Thinking “trying your best” is enough to ace a test.

OK, so what I’ve discovered is this: it’s the moments where you actually have to face the music that end up being the disappointments of optimism. This one’s a biggie. When your hopeful little heart convinces you that maybe, just maybe, you’re gonna ace that test you had no time to study for. And then… Nope. No. Didn’t go well. There’s nothing worse than having that little kernel of hope completely stomped on by the big boot of scholastic reality. Sorry, GPA. Sorry, Mom. I really believed it could be OK.

Article originally published on Odyssey, 2016