gives me hope

A recent trend in the website/blogging world over the past few years is one that you are no doubt familiar with if you spend any kind of time on the internet. It is websites with user submitted content, anonymously sharing little blurbs about their lives with the rest of the world. However, it isn't just random life stories and happenings, they are all "themed" according to the respective site.

The first website, the grandfather of all it's website branch-offs, is FML or fmylife.com. I'm sure you can figure out what it means. On this site, users submit small stories and life events that they thought, well, sucked. Everything posted on the site is something that has had a negative affect in the user's life. An example of something you may find on the site would be: Today I woke up, got dressed, commuted an hour to my job, and realized it was Saturday. FML. Or, sometimes, they are much more serious: I Just found out my finacee cheated on me with my maid-of-honor, it's the night before our wedding. FML.

So, as you can see, these life happenings that people are sharing with the world are only things that have made negative, and potentially catastrophic impacts on people. At first glace, the website can seem funny. People sharing with the world all the little mistakes we make day-in and day-out that really piss us off. But looking closer, this website is sad. People hating their lives or their circumstances so much that they need to put it on a website just so they can find humor in their pain. Now, the commuting to work one -- not so serious. But there are many that are similar to the wedding one, posts where people are traumatized.

I started out being a huge fan of this website, visiting it almost daily for laughs for over a year, however in the past few years, I've become a little bit disturbed by its concept. Since when is dwelling on the negative ever a useful thing? When has that ever improved any circumstance?

Since I love cliches, I'm going to quote the Dave Matthews Band, "celebrate we will, because life is short, but sweet for certain." We should be trying to love and absorb every second of our ever-so-temporary lives. Yes, bad things happen, but it's celebrating the good things that matter. So these trendy websites, that are essentially haters on life, get me upset.

Like I said FML is the grandfather, the site that started the internet craze, but it is not to be out-done by it's offspring, textsfromlastnight.com, a horrible excuse for entertainment where people submit raunchy and disgusting text messages they have received/sent out. Then there is mylifeisaverage.com, think fml with less drama. For example: today I watched 5 hours of TV with my cat. my life is average. 

However, there has been a small shift in these popular sites, with the creation and rising popularity of a different kind of website; This website was born as a direct result of the popularity of the aforementioned sites. It's called givesmehope.com, its tagline is "FML for the optimist." And that is exactly what it is. The idea is the same, users submit anonyomous life happening, but ones that give them hope for the future, that remind them that the world is not always such a bad place.

The results of this site are pretty remarkable, and I feel so challenged to look at all the good things in my life that give me hope. Like the unconditional love of my parents and sisters give me hope, the power of life-long friendships give me hope, and people who always say hold open the door for someone behind them give me hope.

We all struggle, and we are all dealt those times where things really feel like they suck -- be it commuting an hour to work on a Saturday or a heart-shattering revelation the night before your wedding -- regardless, we all have more than enough to be thankful and it is possible to see good in our lives even in the midst of a less-than-ideal situation. It's my hope that we can always be able to find the things in our lives that give us hope.

Here are a few examples from the website,  please let them warm your heart as they did mine.

I am a third grade teacher. Most kids come in with notes or messages written by their mothers in their lunch sacks. One little girl's dad left, and her mother abuses drugs. But her 12 year old brother never fails to write "I love you" on her brown paper bag. He GMH.

I was at the mall the other day when I saw an old couple sitting together. The man looked over at the woman and said, "Jane, we did it. We grew old together." The look in her eyes GMH. 

Today my 7 year old daughter gave my 5 year old son a kiss on the cheek. After she walked away, I saw him rubbing the spot where she had kissed him. I asked if he was wiping the kiss off. He said "no, I'm rubbing it in so it gets to my heart faster." Siblings that truly love each other GMH!

A guy I knew in high school would bring two dozen roses to school every Valentines Day. He would give one rose to each girl he knew that didn't have a valentine. He felt that every girl deserved to feel special. I was one of those girls. We've been married 3 years. Stand up guys in a world of flakes GMH.

I have suffered from an eating disorder for quite a long time. When I was 17, I was sitting in a diner that I always go to to fiddle with my food. When my cheeseburger came there was a tiny flag in the bun. The young waiter had written "Please eat" onto the flag. People who notice the little things GMH.

I was on the bus on my way to the mall, when a homeless man sat next to me. He saw that I was looking at the bouquet of flowers he held, and told me that they were for his wife because today is her birthday. As he got off the bus, he walked into the cemetery and placed the flowers on his wife's grave.
A love that never dies GMH. 

Today was my cousins Kaylee's fifth birthday, and a little girl with Dwarfism was at her party.
Kaylee came up to me holding her hand and said, "This is my best friend Elena, and she can't grow. She's special, God made her that way." My baby cousin's blind love for others GMH.

I attended my friend's wedding a few months after my husband passed away. Watching her father/daughter dance brought me to tears thinking about how my daughter will never get that chance. My husband's friend came up to me and said she may not have her daddy but she will have a line of 'uncles' waiting for their first dance with her. GMH