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I once had a neighbour who was about sixty-five. I could not believe the way she lived life – she would rarely smile or say anything positive. Her name was Nancy.
When I first moved to this particular area, I tried to make friends with the people who lived close to me, this was fairly easy as I sold Tesco Voucher Codes as well as offering a DVD duplication service for a living which was a kind of excuse for talking to them. When I first met Nancy she kept saying how ill she felt and about how her back was playing her up. I went away from this meeting feeling quite sorry for Nancy.
About a month later I met Nancy again. I asked her in a very positive and upbeat way, how she was. I wish I had not bothered as I then had to listen to all of her problems. She did not have one happy thing to say. Over the next few years of living by Nancy, I actually went out of my way to avoid her.
I have to admit that I also used to feel sorry for myself. I grew up with a speech impediment known as a stutter. I could never quite comprehend as to why I developed this speech impediment. It did not seem fair to me as I believed I was a really nice person.
I lived with the stuttering problem until the age of twenty-two and then began to have a change of attitude. I started to focus on the many people in the world who had it far tougher than I did; by just looking and reading about people who live in Iraq and Afghanistan certainly opened up my eyes to a new way of thinking.
When people ask me how I am, I always give a positive answer even if I feel terrible. I try and walk around with a smile on my face and am now living life to the full. I have also managed to overcome that horrible speech impediment and to therefore learn the ways to eradicate stuttering.
People like Nancy could do with having the same change in attitude and they may find they have more visitors to their house and that some of their ailments disappear.
