As we sailed across the Pacific Ocean, we had many opportunities to take something bad and make it into something better.  Educating my children during this voyage was a major challenge.  My children didn’t attend public high school.  They did high school by correspondence course from the University of Nebraska so they could sail on our yacht across the Pacific Ocean.

Neither of the children looked forward to studying two semesters of chemistry on the yacht.  For them, chemistry looked like a potentially bad experience.  They delayed studying chemistry until we arrived in New Zealand.  Soon after our arrival, we were in a car accident that put me in the hospital for two months. 

After I got out of the hospital, I underwent two months of physical therapy learning to walk again.  I couldn’t bend my right knee more than thirty degrees, and I couldn’t walk up and down stairs.  This could easily be classified as something bad.  I decided this would be a good time to teach chemistry to my kids. 

After I returned from two hours of physical therapy each morning, I got out the chemistry book and I taught them chemistry for four hours.  I spent an additional hour or two each day preparing for the next day of correspondence chemistry classes.  In four months, we finished two semesters of high school chemistry.  They completed their studies in chemistry while I learned how to walk.  We took something bad and turned it into something better.

Excerpt from :

Zero Tolerance To Negative Thinking : Good-by Depression - Hello Positive Mind  

David J Abbott M.D.