Optimism?

People keep telling me that I can will myself to do better in school. If I am optimistic about the future and my success, I will see positive results. My initial reaction is, "well that's a load..." But since nothing else seems to be working I have considered the whole, changing-my-attitude route. But then I thought, doesn't this throw the universe off? Isn't there supposed to be a balance of optimism and pessimism in the world? A happy homeostasis? What if everyone were nothing but optimistic all the time? "Crap, I just stepped on a 2 inch plywood nail!" "Oh don't worry about it, lock-jaw isn't so bad." Does that make anyone feel better? I mean I guess if it does that's okay too, but then I would call you a liar. And then you might call me a pessimist, and there it is, balance is restored.

As a matter of fact, I think that if more people would subscribe to the idea of pessimism, they would in fact find themselves, less disappointed. Like, "Hey, turns out you needed one more B to pass this class, sorry." "Figured as much, see you in the summer." See? Doesn't that sound so much better than, "Oh my goodness, but I worked so hard, and put in so much time and effort, please I did the best that I could!" ...I rest my case.

You call it pessimism. I call it realism.