Everyday Canvas

Overcoming Adversity

Prompt: In an interview, Charles Krauthammer said, about his paralysis, “I made a promise to myself on day one [after my injury]. I was not going to allow it to alter my life. You get two choices. You can be hopeless and despairing, or you can live your life. And to me, there was basically no option.”
What are some of those difficult things you do not let to change your life? If you do not want to write about yourself, write about someone you know or even a story character.


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I think, Charles Krauthammer was a very brave man, and he owed his success to his decision to not let such a serious disability affect his output.

I honestly don’t think I have his courage.

On the other hand, I have worked despite some illnesses and other mishaps, but it has never been my style to complain of pain or discomfort. I never knew what challenges were awaiting me, and I had a lot of challenges, too, but I decided not to be frightened of them but to make the best of everything.

Other life challenges that may affect any one of us could be bad parents, divorce, violent people in one’s life, old age, and failures in things we have our hearts set on. It could even be the country one was born in with an extremely repressing regime, or it could be leaving family behind, living in foreign lands and having to make friends with foreigners.

For most of us, it could be small things gone wrong or even bigger undesirable things changing our lives. In fact, we never know from one minute to the next what is on the horizon.

I believe some kind of faith is needed to overcome any adversity. If it isn’t a religion or some such belief, one must, at least, believe in oneself, thinking, “I shall overcome this. I shall be successful and happy, despite this mishap, tragedy, or whatever.”

No one taught me this. In fact, the parent who raised me was a pessimist to the nth degree. I found out on my own that life is never easy, but good or bad, everything is part of the journey human beings have to take. We might as well make the best of it.

Moreover, as easy as this sounds, it isn’t. One thing to take into consideration, after believing in oneself, is the understanding that we have nothing to lose and it isn’t the end. Also, the more we overcome challenges, the stronger we become.