resilience.

No matter what has happened in my life there has always been one constant – my ability to remain resilient in nearly all situations.

If I weren’t, I wouldn’t be here. Let’s not delve too deeply into what I have overcome, but rather the concept itself.

What is resilience in your mind? To me it is to remain steadfast in the face of challenge. These challenges can be anything, really, but for me it often relates to my disability or my health. However, one of the things that I am most proud of for being resilient is: obtaining my bachelor’s degree.

It took me 12 years to receive after many, many bouts with illness and financial difficulties. Due to my being a returning student from 2014, going back in 2020 – there were some hangups with financial aid. The balance from my college classes before caused some logistical issues. This made registering for classes a pain every subsequent semester.

Alongside the financial complications, I was very sick during my time as a student. I spent months in the hospital, all the while missing in-person classes. Fortunately, for the 2021 school year, most of the classes were online. This made keeping up so much easier as well as getting ahead in class.

However, 2022 and 2023 were in-person, and this made attending classes during periods of illness all the more difficult. There were several instances where I spent over a month per semester in the hospital if not more. I didn’t really start to see an uptick in my health until early 2023. This made my final semester much less stressful and more manageable.

It might have taken me 12 years to get what usually takes four years, but I did it. I had so many challenges along the way including a 7-year hiatus and many, many health complications, but I did it!

Stay resilient.