We all have rough days. For me, it was the other morning. I got up for an early shift after having little sleep the night before. I was on day three of disinfecting areas that aren’t easiest because the hose doesn’t work right or I keep banging my head or scratching my back on the perching set up around the stall. Then, there was the feeling of being overwhelmed with all the tasks on my list. I scratched my back on the perching once again and I’ll admit, I let out a growl of frustration. I stopped what I was doing and gave myself a moment to think “this sucks, I don’t like this at all. What am I even doing?” But, then I remembered the animal in the stall next to mine. A sensitive little guy who’s super sweet, but also a super turd, and I really kind of like him. Animals can sense your attitude, and they’ll act according to it. The frustration I was harboring wasn’t going to help my relationship with my friend in the other stall. He’s supposed to feel safe around his caretakers, and my growls of frustration only adds tension to the room.

So, I checked myself. I took a deep breath and asked myself why was I so frustrated. Cleaning isn’t fun, but it’s never bothered me before. I keep hitting my head, but not enough that I’m gonna be bruised, and when you’re a tall person working with monkeys, you have to accept you’ll hit your head on the perching. I was tired, but not enough to stop me from doing my job. In the end, every reason I came up with was something I label as a “little thing.” And, the icing on the cake that painted all these little things as a disaster?

I was hungry.

I had a textbook case of being hangry. I knew as soon as I ate something, I would feel a lot better, and later in the day, I’d look back at that morning and be upset with myself for letting all those little things get the better of me. It wasn’t worth it, and it especially wasn’t worth effecting my relationship with the animal in the other stall. So, I took another deep breath, refocused, and went back to a calmer attitude while I cleaned. I paused by my friend in the other stall and offered reassurance and talked to him, so he’d know everything was alright. When I finished cleaning, I spent quality time with him. Did some training, and gave him treats. When he was feeling better, I moved on to the breakroom to get something to eat. Just like I thought, I felt better. The world wasn’t as sucky as those little, morning frustrations claimed it was.

It’s amazing how attitude effects you and the living things around you. It’s contagious. If you’re in a bad mood and act upon that mood, it can bring others down if they think you’re mad at them, it can convince others to share that same mood, or put tension in the air that people or animals put their guard up. The reverse is also true. If you’re in a good mood, smiling and laughing, it can spread to others. One thing you need to be in animal care is calm. If you’re calm, your animals will have more reason to be calm as well.

I hope this encourages you to check your attitude when you find yourself getting cranky or down. Figure out the reason behind it. Are you just hungry? Is there something bigger going on? Then, decide if it’s worth it. Maybe you have situations like I did where a bunch of little things were getting to you. You can hold onto those little things or let them go. Decide whether or not they’ll be important in an hour or not. You have the power to choose if you’re going to let that effect the rest of your day and the people around you.

Attitudes are powerful. Be careful how you use them.

A couple weeks ago, I was stuck waiting on a train. We’ve all been there. We get to a railroad crossing, the lights light up, the bars go down, and all you can do is wait while a train goes by. Trains are very cool. I like to look them over as they go by. Try to see things I haven’t seen before. It never fails, though. There’s one thing I always see on the side of the trains: graffiti.

Up and down the cars of the trains, there’s the elaborate painting of people’s tags. These artists sneak into the railyards and make their mark on the trains. Some are pretty cool, but others you can tell they were rushing because they didn’t want to get caught. Yet, cool or rushed, I must admit. I always struggle with reading them. Whether the word doesn’t make sense or all the letters are big and bubbly, I stare at them for the colors most of the time since I can’t interpret what it’s trying to say. A friend of mine suggests most of the tags are people names–pen names, artistic names, what they want to be known by. It got me thinking.

These trains travel all across the nation. Thousands of people get stopped by them at these railroad crossings and watch them go by. So, these artists tagging the trains reach a wide audience of people with their work. And yet, all they put on the trains is their calling card?

I am–by no means–promoting the tagging or graffiti on trains. People work hard to take great care of the trains. Most of the graffiti on the side, doesn’t help their appearance, in my opinion. But, if someone is going to break the law by breaking into a train yard to leave their mark on one of the cars, they might as well give it a purpose. I doubt anyone cares about the bubbly letters they can’t read or the tag names that have no meeting to them. With as wide of an audience that sits on the railroad tracks, you could send a message–preferably something that the train workers aren’t going to power wash off right away. You could spread encouragement down those rails. Share what you believe. Just think, if someone is having a bad day and gets stuck at a train track, they could look up and see whatever encouraging message is tagged on there and that could change their whole day. Something like that would definitely make a bigger impact than a random name on the side of a train.

Again, I am not promoting graffiti on trains. Don’t give the hard working train workers more work to do by washing away your art. Go find yourself a more permanent canvas you actually own. But, if you must tag a train, and can’t stop yourself. At least try to spread a little hope. You stand a better chance of making a difference that way.