Even though they were menial jobs, you surely gained a lot of experience that will help you in so many ways that you won't even realize. Yes, life can be hard sometimes to make things negative. And staying positive is hard itself as well. I think both are important in life. Sometimes skepticism does proves to be a better way of thinking than pure optimism.
Not me, but my friend is the one with the skills 😅 but yeah, I agree with you.