{"id":42147,"date":"2015-07-27T09:50:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T14:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=42147"},"modified":"2015-07-27T12:22:21","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T17:22:21","slug":"worst-day-ever-inspires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/worst-day-ever-inspires\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Worst Day Ever’ Inspires"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"article\"<\/a>
Chanie Gorkin’s poem “Worst Day Ever?” tweeted out after found posted in London.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps by now you\u2019ve come across the poem \u201cWorst Day Ever?\u201d<\/p>\n

The poem has been making waves across social media as an anonymous post until the author\u2019s identity was revealed last week: 16-year-old Chanie Gorkin, a student at the all-girls Lubavitch high school Beth Rivkah in Crown Heights.<\/p>\n

Beyond the scope of Jewish publications, the inspiring poem has caught the\u00a0 attention from media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic, including Mashable<\/a>, The Huffington Post<\/a>, Teen Vogue, ABC, NBC and The Telegraph. \u00a0JTA<\/a> reports it has been translated into several languages, including Hebrew, Chinese and Russian.<\/p>\n

The poem was even spotted hanging on the wall of a North London bar by a man who tweeted it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coverage has been overwhelming,\u201d says Gorkin\u2019s mother Dena in an interview with Chabad.org<\/a>,\u00a0noting that her daughter was not looking for such attention. \u201cBut she is happy to have inspired so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chanie's<\/a>
Chanie’s poem, posted on Facebook, translated into Italian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The poem, whose deeper message is revealed only once read backward, was originally assigned for a school project, and later submitted on the PoetryNation <\/a>website. She was a semi-finalist in the website\u2019s July to December 2014 contest and the poem was published in a collection of poems entitled \u201cBeyond the Sea: Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poem sounds pessimistic when read from top to bottom, but the reader is instructed at the end of the poem to reread it from the bottom up to find out how the writer really felt about her day.<\/p>\n

Chanie told Chabad.org that the text of the poem was inspired by Chassidic philosophy, which teaches about harnessing the power of moach shalit al halev<\/i>\u00a0(intellect\u2019s ability to govern one\u2019s emotions) and finding the good hidden in every moment.<\/p>\n

Read the full text of her poem below:<\/p>\n

\u201cWorst Day Ever?\u201d<\/h3>\n

by Chanie Gorkin<\/p>\n

Today was the absolute worst day ever<\/em><\/p>\n

And don\u2019t try to convince me that\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s something good in every day<\/em><\/p>\n

Because, when you take a closer look,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This world is a pretty evil place.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Even if\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Some goodness does shine through once in a while\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Satisfaction and happiness don\u2019t last.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not true that\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all in the mind and heart\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Because\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

True happiness can be attained\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Only if one\u2019s surroundings are good\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not true that good exists\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you can agree that\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The reality\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Creates\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

My attitude\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all beyond my control\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And you\u2019ll never in a million years hear me say\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Today was a very good day<\/em><\/p>\n

Now read it from bottom to top, the other way,<\/em><\/p>\n

And see what I really feel about my day.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Now read from bottom to top.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps by now you\u2019ve come across the poem \u201cWorst Day Ever?\u201d The poem has been making waves across social media as an anonymous post until the author\u2019s identity was revealed last week: 16-year-old Chanie Gorkin, a student at the all-girls Lubavitch high school Beth Rivkah in Crown Heights. Beyond the scope of Jewish publications, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":730,"featured_media":42163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\n'Worst Day Ever' Inspires - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/worst-day-ever-inspires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Worst Day Ever' Inspires - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps by now you\u2019ve come across the poem \u201cWorst Day Ever?\u201d The poem has been making waves across social media as an anonymous post until the author\u2019s identity was revealed last week: 16-year-old Chanie Gorkin, a student at the all-girls Lubavitch high school Beth Rivkah in Crown Heights. 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