A friend of mine was cycling home from work on Friday and got knocked off his bike. It was a bad crash. He has a broken ankle, stitches in his head and stitches in his hand as well as many other scratches and bruises.

He's from Latvia. He's a Marine Engineer and had been working in Dover for the last few years on the ferries. He decided he'd like to better himself and get promotion but to do this he had to take a two day Engineering Management exam. So he quit his job and started working in a factory so that he could earn some money to pay for the exam which was expensive and have some time to do the studying he needed to do before hand.

He took the exam and is waiting for the results, but continues to work in the factory until he finds out whether he has passed. It's hard work for him and he gets paid very little compared to what he is used to, but he thinks it's worth it to be able to return to work in the future as a manager.

I always thought, it must be hard for him, but he was always cheerful and positive and looking forward to the future.

Then this accident. My heart went out to him. What bad luck at a time when there wasn't really a lot of good going on in his life.

I phoned him today to see how he was, thinking he must be so frustrated, angry and fed up, not able to work or even go out. I was going to console him.

But no. My friend really is an optimist. He said he was absolutely fine. He was looking on the bright side. Perhaps it happened because someone from up above was telling him to slow down a bit. If he'd had the accident at some time in the future, he wouldn't have been able to start his new job so it was lucky it happened now. He said he wasn't quite as good looking because of the stitches on his head, but they would mend and then he'd look good again. He talked about how he had met some lovely people in the hospital and thanked me for my support. The only thing he felt sad about was the lady that had hit his bicycle - she was so upset!

I am amazed at how positive he is. It has shown me that you really can choose how you react to events. I would have definitely been frustrated, angry and fed up. I would have been miserable - he hurts a bit, but he's happy. Worth thinking about isn't it?

Shannon

A Moodscope member.