The Mood Ring

From time to time, coworkers will vent to me about their desire not to go to work on a given day. But I love my job. I loved it before I left to take a year off of work, and I loved it once I returned. So when someone starts complaining about their job to me, they are bound to get a dose of positivity shoved back at them.

So it was this morning. One of my dear friends told me of their desire to stay home instead of making their way to the office. The other was complaining about a personal situation. I, in turn, mentioned, “Today is the first day of November. The first day of the rest of our lives. A new month and new beginnings.” I went a little over the top for humor, but it was no less than what I felt inside.

On the way to work, I ran into traffic. One of my coworkers will usually text an ETA on when she will arrive, and I thought I would do the same since the highway had become a parking lot. Text the group “ETA 8:09. Traffic is bad. But I’ve got good music.”

While I was waiting, I noticed the car in front of me had a license plate that started with THC. I began to imagine a guy in prison, maybe on drug charges, who stamped out that plate and had a little joke to himself about the innuendo. But I felt good about how, maybe for a moment, it made his prison feel less small, which made me feel good.

I realized that they probably don’t make license plates in prison anymore, but still, a sense of joy lingered, which made my commute more bearable.

Some of you might be reading this and feel it dripping with saccharine sweetness. It’s too much! I will agree that depending on your energy or where you are emotionally, it could be. And there is nothing wrong with feeling that at all. Nor is there anything inherently right about how I choose to go through life.

For the most part, we align with people that are on our wavelength. It is either do that or feel a constant imbalance. 

There is something that I am drawn to about my friends who love to complain, though. And I’m sure there is something that is appealing about me to them. If I was hanging out with people like me, how long would we sing Kumbaya before it gets old?

My good friend Israel recently told me someone we used to work with said how even when the boss was in a bad mood and people in the office were walking on eggshells, my laughter coming down the hallway would make things feel less tense.

I’m pretty sure I have been like this at every job I have been at, from cleaning bathrooms at a craft store as a teenager to where I am now. Not that I have been entirely positive and without criticism, but for the most part, I think people I have worked with would agree.

But it makes me wonder, would my friends who complain continue to gripe wherever they work? Is it just ingrained within the fabric of our being to be who we are? Would a different job change things for them?