Good morning! It’s time to start another productive work-week!

My recent rant about how teenagers aren’t so terrifying was inspired partly by being the parent of a teen and partly by reflecting on my own teenaged years while sorting through some of my old stuff. One thing I found was the journal I wrote for my journalism class in 11th grade: In addition to the things we wrote for publication, each day we wrote in a spiral notebook, taking our inspiration from either the suggested topic or the quote our teacher wrote on the chalkboard.

I had moments of immaturity or careless rambling, sure, but some of the things I thought and wrote when I was 16 are rather wise. One of them is this meditation on Mondays.

Here’s a guest post from my past self!

“Oop. Ack. It’s Monday.”–Bill the Cat

September 18, 1989

What’s wrong with Monday? I’ve never understood why people (and cartoon cats) expect Mondays to be terrible.

On Monday, you have the whole week stretching out ahead of you. Who knows what might happen? You could bring your trig grade up ten points or win a free pizza or suddenly discover that your Top Five sexy guys are all interested in you. The two best things that happened to me this year were both on Mondays. Teachers almost never give tests on Mondays. Why does everybody consider it the worst day of the week?

Good question! Good attitude!

Speaking of good attitudes: About a decade ago, I went through a stage where I was drinking coffee during every workday but wasn’t yet certain that this was a permanent habit and I should just buy another coffee-maker for the office, so I was taking my travel mug to the mini-mart across the street. The cashier had an optimistic parting line for every day of the week:

• Have a marvelous Monday!
• Have a terrific Tuesday!
• Have a wonderful Wednesday!
• Have a thrilling Thursday!
• Have a fabulous Friday!

I’ve used those a lot since. Sometimes I say them in my head to encourage myself. Sometimes I say them to encourage other people. Because I’m not generally a really cheery personality, these lines can come across as sarcastic rather than earnest, but I try–because even when the things you have to do today seem far from marvelous, terrific, wonderful, thrilling, or fabulous, a one-word spark of optimism might prop you up a bit.

You have the whole week stretching out ahead of you. Who knows what might happen? May it be marvelous!