Yesyesyes - re the knack for being happy - and ditto too re whether it's learned vs innate. I feel that for me, a massive part of the battle has been to learn how to stop getting in my own way - when I'm not actively trying to make myself feel bad (which I was pretty creatively good at), it turns out I'm actually pretty cheerful... bizarre! ;) It turns out also that other people are also pretty bad at making me feel bad, no matter how hard they try - if I don't collude in that, it just sort of bounces off, which was absolutely not the experience of most of my life...

The kids thing surprised me too - it's interesting though - I've always wanted kids alot, and as I get older and there's no very obvious likelihood of this happening imminently, I find things like this reassuring! ;) Though, it wouldn't put me off having them, so... And, yay, for optimism! I do think there's a reason why I love 'onwards and upwards' so much as a rallying cry...!