Eternal Optimist?

When I was at ABC, particularly during the back half of my time there (after I'd been away and come back), I was quite often the resident eternal optimist. Or perhaps I was just a realist with a good attitude. Having been out in the cold world of looking for work, I had a keen appreciation for my job and my paycheck, and for the luck of being in a place where people generally understood me, and almost always challenged me.
 
It would have been easy to be pessimistic when we worked later than we were supposed to, when my directing career moved slower than I wanted, or when we heard the announcement that the soaps were cancelled. Yet, while I certainly had moments of gray--okay, darker than gray--thoughts, it was the belief that something better could--and would--happen that kept me going each day. If I went in each day believing that the day or the week or the show would be good, there was a reasonable chance that it would be.
 
A lot of time has passed since ABC, and I sometimes wonder if I am still that eternal optimist. Do I still believe that saying it's a good day will make it one? Do I still believe that people are mostly doing their best, and that if I do mine, it will be enough? Do I still believe that whatever I have trumps whatever I don't, and that I am lucky to be where I am because it is better than being nowhere at all?
 
I have thought many times over the past few years that my eternal optimism was gone--snatched away in a combination of unemployment and disappointment. It turns out that it was just in hiding. For better or worse, I think I remain an eternal (or at least a most-of-the-time) optimist. Because it's a whole lot easier to be happy that way.