How does a positive turn into a negative?

All my life people have told me what a bright, chirpy person I am!
Ever-smiling, ever-resilient, always bouncing back like a India rubber ball.
How come we never see you down and in the dumps?
What makes you get up and fight back - in the face of all odds?

Wow, what a strong person you are, people have said admiringly.
Almost a man, one of the boys, making your way without a man at your side...
How do you do it? my friends and colleagues have said with one voice.
In fact if I wasn't a woman, I would have been a man!

I walked out on one marriage, with a two year old in tow.
I was walked out on in my second marriage...
And left holding two babies to grow!
I worked and worked and kept on smiling - or so I am told!
So admirable for a female, they gushed...
To cope with single parenthood while surviving in a man's world.

Then I made my way to other climes...
Where life wasn't always kind.
Jobs came, jobs went - money came in fits and starts.
But we survived and I smiled - and smiled and smiled...

My sons grew up and did me proud.
They supported me when I needed their support...
Now they are young men, making their way in the world...
And I start afresh to support myself, by myself!

All these years I have looked at the bright side of things.
Not letting the nitty-gritty of life do me in...
So why is it now I am accused of being negative?
Is it because I have run out of guts, gumption and grit?

Why do I groan and moan about recalcitrant auto drivers?
Why does the errant ways of my domestic help give me high BP?
Is there any point in gnashing my teeth when the shop keeper doesn't deliver?
Would my reporting him to the cops make a difference to the guy...
Who almost runs me down in his monstrous SUV?

Should I go public when my broadband provider rips me off?
Or the cell phone provider fails to provide?
Now that I have to start afresh without being cocooned...
In the ivory towers of privilege and wealth.
Am I expected to stay positive and keep on smiling regardless?