Oftentimes, there is not a rhyme or reason for the experiences we endure as people. Hard times have their ways of shaping one’s mentality, altering one’s subconscious and intentions, discovering one’s priorities. Hardships create who a person is, but pushing through is only half the battle; creating a lesson out of those hardships separates the strong from the weak. Different than others, one of my greatest hardships in life was watching my mother’s health decline. 

     My mother fell ill after an unsuccessful surgery in fifth grade. She suffered from a rare medical condition labeled pulmonary embolism. This incident affected my family in ways I cannot accurately put into words, but its effects continue to influence my life choices in current day. Statistically, one out of ten women survive a pulmonary embolism, therefore the chances of my mother’s survival were at a low for an extended period of time. The flashing red and blue lights of the ambulances outside of my house haunt my nightmares, and the sight of my neighbors who were present at the time bring back the traumatic emotions of pain from that day. There were many moments where I found myself mentally preparing for the possibility of being a child with a single parent. Luckily, however, my mother is a survivor. Although my mother’s recovery took many years, I always admired her strength and will to be there for her family. My mother is a fighter, she beat the odds many times and continued to be who she was seemingly effortlessly. However, this was not a perfect process. Each fluctuation in her health caused me to become the main parental figure in my house for my three other siblings and struggling father. Just as I thought the pain from this time had healed, however, my mother experienced yet another unexpected pulmonary embolism the summer before my junior year of high school. Due to the number of pulmonary embolisms she had experienced within the last few years, this one in its own put my mother’s chances of survival at a new low. The reborn trauma and fear re-entered my life in a much stronger force, as it was then I decided it was my time to fulfil what my mother would not be able to accomplish in her lifetime as I prepared for her possible death as a fifteen year old. In this time, I became the person of comfort I needed around but could not find. I found peace within myself to carry through the coming days and took each sign I could find as a positive. Miraculously, after many prayers and surgeries, my mother lives on to this day; we often call her a cat with nine lives, to which we believe she is currently living her fifth. Aside from the improvement in my mother’s health, I believe that this hardship encouraged my family and myself to be better, to be able to take more blows to the head and continue running the race we call life. 

     The truth is, there is no rule book for fighting through a tough day, a hard time, or a bump in the road. There is no specific path to the road of success, or a shortcut to wellness, and there is no itinerary on the adventure of our lives. Taking one day at a time will encourage one to preserve through these types of hardships, endure what one may have never thought they could survive through. So for those who cannot find it within themselves to get out of bed this morning, to show their faces in class, to reach out for help, I say to you, trust the process.