In my last year of college, I landed a pretty nice tutoring job at a local private school. I was super excited about the pay bump and even more excited that it came from a job I didn’t hate. I actually really liked this job, but because I didn’t have a car at the time and because I didn’t like driving (I was scared of it), I would have to take the bus and walk another 20 minutes to the school where I tutored. To cut down on the commute time, I eventually started taking my bike on the bus and bike the rest of the way.

One day, though, I couldn’t find my bike and it was 10 minutes before the bus’s posted arrival time. I scrambled all through campus looking everywhere I could think, but I had no luck finding it. The last thing I wanted to do was miss the bus and be late for the tutoring session – it was early on in my job and my first session with this particular kid, so I wanted to make a good impression. Suddenly, I remembered that my friend always kept her bike unlocked and that she had let a mutual friend borrow it one time, no sweat. So without thinking and without asking, I took the bike, relieved that I found a way to get to work on time. 

On my way back, the bus’s bike rack was full, so rather than wait for the next bus to come around, I decided to lock up the bike at the bus stop’s bike rack.  I had work the next day anyways, so I would just pick it up then When I got to campus, I kept looking for my bike and actually found it in the first bike rack you see as you walk up to the school. I’m not sure if someone put it there in the time I was gone, or if I was just too frantic to stop and notice it earlier, but either way I was glad to find it.

The next day, I took my usual bus to work. As the bus slowed to a stop, I got the sense that something was wrong. When I got off the bus I confirmed that, yes, in fact both wheels were missing. My heart sunk, especially since I hadn’t yet told my friend that I had taken her bike in the first place. And the worst (or equally as bad) part was that I had a session starting in 10 minutes and no longer had a functional bike to get me there on time, so I was forced to call an Uber and deal with the bike later.

After work, I walked back to where the bike was locked up, wondering how this could have happened – especially since I had successfully gone through this exact procedure so many times before with my bike. That’s when I realized that my bike’s wheels were bolted onto the frame whereas my friend’s bike had quick-release wheels, making them 100x easier to steal. That’s also when I realized that that other bike frame I had always wondered about must have had the same thing happen to it. How did I not see this coming?

Anyways, at this point, I had already spent more than $10 on the Uber to work and I didn’t want to think about how much I would have to spend replacing either my friend’s wheels or the whole bike, but since I was having a bad day (clearly) I decided to treat myself to a McDonald’s breakfast (I love their flapjacks and, no, that’s not sarcasm). I took an Uber there because I didn’t know whether or not the bus driver would allow me to bring the bike frame on board and, once there, I luckily spotted another student who was gracious enough to give me a ride back to campus.

At this point, you’re probably wondering, why I’m telling you all this, besides the fact that I’m using it as a form of catharsis? It’s because all this mess actually strengthened my optimism, or, at the very least, it helped me be less nihilistic. How? Because it helped me see that something “bad” or “inopportune” could actually end up being “good” or “opportune” and vice-versa. 

In my case, finding my friend’s bike in time to get to work actually ended up being more costly than not going to work that day. Those wheels ended up being somewhere around $100 to replace. Both Ubers probably amounted to around $25 and my Micky D’s breakfast was probably $5-10. In total, that’s about $135 dollars… It took me $135 dollars to get to a session where I only made $25. So, even though I thought finding my friend’s bike would help me, it actually cost me $110 in the end.

Looking back, it would’ve been a lot better to just sleep in, maybe still get my Micky D’s breakfast if I was feeling like it, and take it easy. It would’ve saved me a lot of time, money, energy and stress. But, at the same time, I wouldn’t have been the wiser for it. And maybe $110 is a good price to pay for such a lesson. The point is, I literally have no idea what’s “good luck” or “bad luck” and neither do any of us. I don’t even think luck is real, to be honest, though that’s a story for another post. Ultimately, it’s only the universe that knows what it’s doing and we’re just along for the ride, whether we like it or not and whether or not we think it’s “good” or “right.”

It is my hope that this story will allow you to learn the same lesson without having to pay the $110 price tag for it and that it’ll help you reframe any “negative” experience you may have as a “positive” one. Because nothing is inherently negative or positive, but rather it’s our perception of it that makes it so.

So, from now on, just commit yourself to thinking that all the “bad” stuff in your life is preventing you from experiencing worse stuff, thus converting “bad” into “good.” And just like that, you will never experience negativity again. You’ve basically just been gifted the phenomenological Philosopher’s Stone, so consider yourself one of the most auspicious people in the world. Because who else gets to always be protected from the worst thing that could happen, with anything and everything being possible at any given time? (Probably all of us, if you adopt this thinking lol, but that’s exactly the point).