attitude
Attitude
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
- Albert Einstein
Before I met my uncle Benny, my life was functional, but my attitude was always negative especially when I started third grade of elementary school. During that year, my homework was piling up, my freedom was quickly vanishing, and my attitude was growing more and more negative every day. At school, I was always the child who would pay attention in class and will always be quiet. Yet, after class I would always have a negative statement for everything from teachers to homework to even the patch of yellow grass in our front lawn. Even though it didn’t seem like it, I was the angel with the devil heart.
And then, the year that changed my life, 1997. It was spring and the flowers were blooming and the birds were chirping. I overheard my dad’s phone call that an uncle of mine would be coming to visit us. I had never met this uncle, so I couldn’t make any final decisions about him. On February the 18th, while I was opening the front door to go into the house, I heard a huge laughter; a humongous one, probably the loudest one that I heard in my life so far. Hearing that laughter, I walked up to the breakfast room and spotted a young man sitting and laughing with my mom and dad. At first appearance, the young man looked like a very happy business-like man. My dad quickly stood up when he saw me and introduced the young man to me. “Gloria, this is your uncle Benny and he will be visiting us for 3 weeks.” I smiled my angelic smile and remembered my manners. “Hello uncle Benny. My name is Gloria and I’m very happy that you have come to visit us.” Uncle Benny beamed and said,” Why Gloria, such an angel you are, why not sit down and talk with us?” I quickly shook my head and said that I had homework to do and quickly ran upstairs. While I ran upstairs, I thought about how happy uncle Benny was. “A little too much!” I told myself. Back then I hated the fact that some people were too happy and positive. “Why are they always so happy?” I asked myself and continued up the stairs.
The next day changed everything about me. I was walking around the park with uncle Benny and we were talking about how our life was. I told him that I was having a terrible life and that I would love to have another person’s life instead. When I finished that statement, uncle Benny looked at me with a smile and said, “ Why not smile more?” “Wha-wha—what?” I stammered, “what do u mean?” Uncle Benny took his fingers and made a smile with my face. “Smile like that and smile more too. Be positive and be happy. It will make the whole world much better, I’m 100% sure of it. Remember, you only have one life, which means one time to be happy. Its better to be happy now than be happy in your afterlife.” After that walk in the park, I began to smile more, and also began to be positive. My family also became happier because of him. His laugh, his smile, his jokes, and his tricks: everybody was happy because of him. Even one day when my mom, the only cook in our family, burned her hand while boiling water, he was positive all the way. He bandaged up the injury, did his little “magic” spell on it, smiled, and said that it will heal in a week. Who cooked for the whole week? Uncle Benny himself! He was a very energetic cook. Whenever he cooked a meal for us, he would do interesting circus tricks with the spatulas and the wok. Every movement from his body would burst my family into laughter. He also made us make a promise to be always happy and smile. 3 weeks after February 18th, 1997, he left back to New York to continue his job as boss of a company. Soon after the years passed, he visited us 4 more times: in the winter of 1999, 2 times in 2000 and in the beginning of 2001, each time making my family happier and happier.
Uncle Benny was a great happy uncle. He was the uncle that changed my life and my family’s life. The smile you see all the time on my face was officially created by him, I also became the angel with the heart of happiness. I have learned to be positive throughout my life, have a sense a great sense of humor, and most importantly smile, for it makes your life much better. Unfortunately, he died in World Trade Tower 1 on 9/11/01 at the young age of 34. I dedicate this essay to him and his happiness. Thank you for making me and my family smile and be much happier. R.I.P. Uncle Benny.
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