"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty"

I think that this quote illustrates two different kinds of people’s personalities. That is, pessimists always see defects in all aspects, but optimists always see positive possibilities in every way. In fact, this quote makes me remind that two kinds of people look at a glass of water which is half empty or half full. Although these are two different stories, the meaning of them is the same, which is pessimists and optimists hold opposite opinions in the same thing.

In general, I agree with what the quote says. Personally, I think that people are belonged to ether one of these attitudes. Perhaps, they do not have the same idea about the same thing but they can be divided into two groups by the attitudes toward an identical event. For instance, when it comes to the issue that people will have better lives in the future, some people would think so; however, others would not. In other words, even if they think of the same aspect, they would have different views. As I mentioned above, when people look at the same glass of water, some people think it is half full, but others think it is half empty.

We can apply this quote to viewing friends or family members around us. In this way, we may know they are optimists or pessimists. Although they are so different, I think ether of these attitudes can be good and bad in the same time. If a person is too optimistic, the person might overlook many risks that would serious hinder his or her goals. On the other hand, if a person is too pessimistic, the person might give up many important opportunities that would make him or her better. Therefore, if we know a person’s basic attitude toward things, we may help him or her to achieve his or her goals. That is to say, when we know a optimistic person, we may remind him or her to be aware of potential problems. On the other hand, we may encourage a pessimistic person to pursue his or her dreams.

Generally, I am a relatively pessimistic person because I always consider the worst result of everything. For example, a few months ago, I took IBT TOEFL and I thought that I might make a lot of mistakes in the test because I did not understand many sentences in passages and recordings. Thus, I assumed that I missed all of those questions that I was not sure of the correct answers. Hence, I estimated that I may get 70 in total score. However, it turned out that my actual score was 22 points more than the score I was expected. Actually, this is not the only example that I assumed that I screwed up my tasks. Nevertheless, I do not think that it is a serious defect because I can prepare to face and handle the worst situations that I may have to deal with. Therefore, I think a relatively pessimistic attitude can be good in several ways.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.