Optimism and Pessimism

I think of myself as an optimist. This morning, I was standing in the shower thinking about optimism.  (Ok, it was this afternoon.  Our hot water was out for some reason this morning)

Lately in dating, I've been on quite a few dates, and nothing has come out of them.  Which is normal for dating I suppose (Dating still doesn't make any sense to me).  But when I go on a date, and I have fun, my thoughts are already thinking to the potential of a relationship.  I think this has to do with optimism (I feel optimistic that it will work out).  That's great, but every time the relationship doesn't work out, it's makes me pretty sad.

In light of this, I was wondering if pessimism might be the way to go.  If you expect the worst to happen, anything that goes well is a pleasant surprise, right?  Maybe.  But even then, I don't think you're ever happy for long.  So that won't really work for me either.

I think what I decided today is that I'll continue to be optimistic, but a hybrid optimist.  I'll recognize that people make stupid choices that are disappointing, but that I'm going to hope for the best anyway.   That way, I can be happy more often, but also be pleasantly surprised when things do go well.