Resilience
re·sil·ience // noun // the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

This is the story of how I learned the essence of resilience. The young lady featured in this piece may never know that I wrote about her, or the impact she had on me, but I feel as though her story is important to share nonetheless.

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It was the first day of job training for a local ice cream company. Fifteen of us had arrived at a small, dismal building. The atmosphere was dreary, and the instructor looked less than thrilled to be teaching teenagers and young adults how to scoop ice cream and follow the company's protocols.

As the day proceeded on, we exchanged names and ages. One young lady shared with us that she was already a mother, even though she did not look much older than me. When I asked her how old she was, she looked at me, smiled, and said "Michael Jordan." I immediately returned the smile and recalled his infamous number..23. As the class went on, we got sidetracked on the topic of drunk driving. This topic immediately resonated with the girl I had been talking to earlier, and she felt compelled to tell us her personal story.

Very calmly she exclaimed that a drunk driver had run her car off the road a few years ago. The instructor attempted to assure her, "well everything turned out alright, didn't it?" She responded ever so calmly with "No, my daughter is paralyzed forever." I will never forget the silence that filled the room as soon as she talked about the outcome of this shocking hit and run.

In that moment, our hearts all broke for her, but what shocked me the most was not the incident herself, but her attitude towards life. She was not angry with the world and did not hold hatred within her young heart. I could see it in her eyes that she forgave the man that drove away and left her and her young daughter in an incomprehensible situation. I was in awe that despite the cards she had been dealt, she was the one who smiled the most and brought the room to life. Her resilience and strength are something I will never forget.