Last night, two of my friends drove me to the hospital at 12 a.m. because I had awful pain on the lower right side of my stomach; this was the type of pain that made you vomit and curl up, it hurt so much. After I got admitted, I had to get my blood drawn and was given something for the nausea and pain. I was then told I would have to get an ultrasound to rule out an appendicitis. That’s when I realized it was going to be a long night and there were only two ways to handle this situation. I could either have a pity party and feel bad for myself, or I could make the best out of it and stay positive.

I am not going to lie and say that I didn’t have a bit of a breakdown and want my mom at first, but then I picked myself up and decided the best way to handle it was to stay positive. I had to accept the fact that yes, I was in pain and scared, but it could be worse. For example, the guy next to me had been stabbed by a piece of glass and was literally screaming. The ER in the middle of the night is a crazy place filled with a lot of drunk, high, or strange people, and I could tell that some of the ER workers were having a hard time with quite a few of their guests. And don’t get me wrong, I know most nights are probably like that, but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying to brighten up the workers' nights.

When I made the choice to stay positive, I decided I would also try to make the best of the night for everyone. If you know me, you know my goal in life is to make people smile, so I was cracking jokes all the way to ultrasound and back. I tried to be extra nice to the nurses because I knew that the stab wound victim and his extremely intoxicated friends were giving them a hard time.

After five hours in the ER, I was finally given the test results. I had free fluid above my right ovary and it was mostly caused by an ovarian cyst rupture, hence the pain and nausea. I was extremely grateful we could finally go home, since the only thing they could do for my ruptured cyst was treat the pain.

Last night was the first time I had to deal with an emergency situation without my parents, and it taught me a lot. That night could have gone a lot differently if I had a different attitude. Sometimes staying positive is the best thing you can do in an uncomfortable situation, and you are the one who decides how your day is going to go. We can’t control much in our life, but we can decide how we react to things in it.

As humans, we have a tendency to feel bad for ourselves and complain A LOT. Sometimes you just need to shift your prospective. I was defiantly better off than the guy next to me, and I’m sure he was doing better than someone else in that hospital. You have the power the to decide how things are going to affect you --you can let them upset you, or you can choose positivity. And why wouldn’t you choose positivity?