In any circumstance, try to stay positive and upbeat. This can be accomplished in various ways.
Some words have a positive connotation, some have a negative connotation, and some have a neutral connotation. The definition of a connotative word is;
When you look up a word in the dictionary, you will find its literal (denotative) meaning. However, the emotions and associations connected to a word is known as its connotative meaning. Depending on our experiences, certain words have a positive, negative, or neutral connotation.
examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-connotative-words.html
One way is by trying not to use negative words or statements with negative connotations in them or to them. The definition below is of a negative connotation, however, it also has a link for the difference between negative and positive connotation.
Negative connotation is when the word implies something negative or is informal. For example, the word chick is not only informal, but sometimes implies negativity to other girls. Now, we need to know what Positive Connotation is. Positive Connotation implies Positivity or.Jan 7, 2013
https://prezi.com/…/the-difference-between-negative-connotation-and-positive-connotati…
I felt that it was necessary to look up the definition of negative and positive connotation, that way there is a reference to fall back on in case there is some confusion about it.
When I became a teenager, my Mother told me to always try to make anybody I had any contact with feel better by having had an encounter with me. I guess it was her way of saying to “brighten the corner where you are”. That was a very hard thing for me to do, as I was sad most of my growing up years. I was backwards and didn’t really have very good interaction skills with other people. That happens when you are being abused a lot.
My life sort of turned around when I got married and moved to another state. However, after my first husband left me for a truck stop waitress, my world started to crumble.
I met someone else at church and we got married soon after that. My life was beautiful. I looked forward to coming home everyday to be with my husband. but that too changed just two years after we were married. He lost his job and had to go to another town to get work. Then he started back to school to get his engineering degree. Somewhere along the line he changed his major to psychology. It was then that my past came flooding back. Long story short, he left and moved to another state to continue his education and get his degree is psychology.
I poured myself into my work at my full time job and also got a part-time job. Things were going good for me until I became disabled. While I was visiting my family back home in March of 1990, I came down with asthma, bronchitis, and mico-plasm pneumonia (the worst kind for scaring your lungs). I had to stay an extra two weeks because the doctors would not let me fly back to my own home. Once I got back to my own home, I was being rushed to the hospital every 7 to 10 days with asthma attacks so bad that I couldn’t breathe. You can’t keep a job when you are having to be rushed to the hospital so much. On June 9, 1990, I lost both my full time job that I had had for 16 years, and my part time job that I had had for 5 years. The next year I had to file for bankruptcy.
I was put on numerous medications to control all of my symptoms and new diseases. one of the medications that the doctors put me on for the inflammation in my lungs was Prednisone. After I went on that one, I gained 100 pounds in 6 months. It took the doctors 3 years to come up with the perfect combination of medications to control my condition. In the meantime I had had to start using oxygen.
After three years of being sick, I was feeling well enough to start to school to train for another job. So at 41 years old, in May of 1993, I started going to Lexington Community College, pulling oxygen tanks behind me. The day before I started classes, I found out that I had become diabetic. Unknown to me, one of the really bad adverse side effects of Prednisone was that it could cause you to become diabetic. I was still having to be rushed to the hospital with asthma attacks, but no where near as often as before.
I was planning on being a Respiratory Therapist. Most of my classes were medical in nature that being the case. It came time to declare my major, and so I did. There were 300 students that tried to get into the program. I was number 3 to be accepted. Needless to say I was very happy. My happiness was to be short lived. In January, I ended up in a wheelchair. You can’t do Respiratory Care from a wheelchair. So in tears, I had to go tell them that I had to decide on a different major. The major I had to pick had to be one that could be done in a wheelchair. I chose computer programming.
Long story short, it took me 6 and 1/2 years to finish a 2 year program. With all of my medical problems and doctors appointments and therapy appointments, I was only able to attend half time. During the time I was there, I had to have 13 surgeries. But through it all, I persevered. I finished in December of 1999, with honors, and went through the graduation ceremonies in May of 2000. I had had to be rushed from work to the hospital earlier in the day, but returned to work after being discharged from the ER. I told them at work that there was no way that I was going to miss my graduation ceremony. I attended my graduation ceremonies and ended up in a wall of smoke just outside the building as i was going to go home. The ambulance had to take me from my vehicle to the hospital for a second time that day. I was back at work the next day.
I had started working in March of 2000. It had taken me a little over 2 months, after finishing school, to find a job. The following is a picture of me at my desk at work:
As you can see I had to wear a face mask so I wouldn’t catch anything from anybody else. My immune system was so low due to all of my medical conditions and medications. I had wrist braces, a back brace, leg braces, and had to use a scooter to get around. But I still went to work. I had to get up at 4:30 every morning, to be able to do everything that I had to do to get ready to go to work, and be there by 7:00. i went to bed at 8:30 every night.
My time at work was marked with many medical issues as well. I had 11 surgeries while I was working. In November of 2004, I was getting ready to sit down at my desk, after returning from yet another surgery. My supervisor informed me not to sit down, and went on to tell me that I no longer worked there. She told me that they needed me to be there and not out having to have surgeries all the time.
I have been on total disability ever since then. I still have to have surgeries and have many medical problems, but I try to find things to laugh at about my situation. Many people get upset with me for laughing at such serious issues. I just tell them that if I couldn’t laugh, I couldn’t make it with all the things that I have wrong with me. In other words, I try to stay upbeat as much as possible. granted, I don’t make it all the time, but I never stop trying.
I have made it for 17 years with an artificial bladder. Of the people had the same surgery as I did at the same time as I had mine, most of them died within the first three years. Only a handful made it for five years. I am the only person still surviving that had it back in 2000. I am waiting for the next surgery on my bladder as we speak. i have to get down to 200 pounds. At my current weight of 226.6 pounds, I have a 60% chance of surviving the surgery. At 200 pounds, my survival rate goes up to 80%. Granted 80% isn’t all that great, and i would much rather have a 95% chance of surviving, but 80% is better that 60% any day of the week.
What I am trying to point out with this whole big post is that you have to stay positive as much as possible. I know that it is not humanly possible to be positive all the time, but it is humanly possible to be positive at some time everyday!!!! PERIOD!!!