Q1. What’ve you learned through hardship that you couldn’t have learned any other way? R
Q1. What’ve you learned through hardship that you couldn’t have learned any other way? Resilience is a mirage, a palliative badge of honor that’s reserved for the systemically marginalized. As an undergrad, living in a foreign country where I had no family and with limited material resources, studying in departments where people of colour were not the norm, I survived much more than I thrived. I dealt with traumatic experiences that left me riddled with anxiety, fear, insecurity. But, for a long time, I thought how strong I was to have made it through and to have achieved so much that I was proud of while being the chief driver of the struggle bus. A late-night conversation with a friend one finals period shifted that lens. While my daily schedule before exams included full days of work shifts, sometimes a psych survey or two to make extra money, and then nights dedicated to catching up with revision and schoolwork, my friend would wake up at their leisure, treat themselves to a meal off-campus, and have a full day to focus on what we were there for– school. At the end of our college careers, our stories would be reduced to grades, fellowships, internships, with no mention of the barriers that I, and others who had it much harder than me, had to overcome constantly to get there. I had to believe resilience was a virtue because I needed it every day. But I wouldn’t have if I’d had resources, support, and the opportunity to choose ease. What have you learned from hardship? https://www.instagram.com/p/CSucNRtqMPE/?utm_medium=tumblr -- source link