Diya Mirza

When I was 5 years old our family moved to Starkville, Mississippi. My dad had secured a position as a research scientist at Miss. State Univ. that was simply too good to pass up.Starkville was a small town like many other small towns across America. Life was slow and safe and predictable. All in all, not such a bad place to live.For the next 12 years I was a Starkvillian. Like so many other young boys I spent most of my free time exploring the world from the comfort of a bicycle seat.Life was full of adventures. Looking back now, it resembled a series of Norman Rockwell paintings.But it wasn't always so idealistic. In fact, for over 20 years after leaving that small town I hated everything to do with Starkville. I called it a nightmare existence in a God-forsaken town.

So why do you suppose I hated it?I Focused On The Negativeike children everywhere, my wonder years consisted of good events, bad events, and many mediocre and neutral events. Good times that made me feel good. Bad times that made me feel bad. And many events stirred little emotional reaction at all.

However, my problem was that I discounted the good events, while elevating the bad ones.

The painful events on my past became like anchors - the pillars of the past. The defining moments of my life.

Certain events would happen, and rather than simply feeling the pain and moving on, I would suppress and repress those painful emotions.Paradoxically, while I denied the feelings, I elevated the events. I would take a painful situation and make it much worse than it really was.