What Makes a Story of Hope?
What lessons and inspiration can we draw from the stories of individuals and communities that have faced tragedy and overcome adversity?
When people face a traumatic experience, there is no right way to heal or overcome it. Some people might fall apart, others may thrive and be more alive than they ever could’ve been before. The difference between a story being one of hope, or one of despair, can be contributed to a few key factors. Resilience, adversity, survival, and of course, hope.
These four words can make all the difference when going through a hardship, tragedy, or even just a little loss. But, how do they all contribute?
After doing a case study on all 4, here were the main ideas I pulled out:
“Resilience is a reflex.”
The context: Resilience is something that can be learned, and something that comes as a reflex through struggles, adversity, and change.
What’s happening: How Resilience Works by Diane Coutu, outlines the psychology of resilience, how it builds, who has it, and what it comes from. Resilience is something that can be learned and nurtured, it isn’t something that you’re either born with or without, anyone can be resilient given the right circumstances.
The big picture: “Resilient people and companies face reality with staunchness, make meaning of hardship instead of crying out in despair, and improvise solutions from thin air. Others do not. This is the nature of resilience, and we will never completely understand it.” The final few sentences of the text really show the main idea. Resilience is something that some people have, I’ve don’t know where it comes from or the specifics of who is the most resilient, but that’s fine, because resilience can be learned through life experiences.
“You can start in despair but arrive at hope.”
Details: Adversity is defined as a difficultly or misfortune, but people who overcome adversity can be defined by their experiences and/ or how they overcome adversity.
What’s happening: In The New Survivors by Pamela Weintraub, we uncover the stories of adversity, specifically facing cancer survivors, and how that adversity shaped them.
Zoom in: As cancer survival rates grow, the people once seen as victims become survivors. The adversity they faced and the resilience they have shown has become an example and a collection of stories of hope.
Can a Devastating Shark Attack Really Lead To a Better Life?
“Humans have a capacity to survive, even in the face devastating events.”
What’s Happening: Survival is about more than just living, it’s about staying alive by thriving and emanating life after overcoming adversity.
The Backstory: Can a Shark Attack Really Lead to a Better Life? by Melanie Greenberg is an article written about Bethany Hamilton, a surfer who’s arm was bitten off by a shark. She survived this attack, and after overcoming that difficult life challenge, she became a better surfer, and started thriving in her day to day life.
Between the Lines: Her struggles and difficulties only built on her survival, and after she re taught herself to surf, her life seems to have improved past what it was pre attack. Her resilience and survival through the issues and challenges left her living thriving, and beyond surviving.
Hope Is the Thing With Feathers
“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches on the soul.”
Details: Hope is a feeling and a sense that comes in a tangle with Resilience, adversity, and survival.
The Big Picture: In the poem Hope is the Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson, hope is described as a bird, sitting in your soul, there for you but never asking anything of you.
The Other Side: Hope is an instinct and a privilege to have. Anyone can have hope and anyone can learn hope, but in the face of challenges and adversity, hope is the thing to hold onto. It is a reflection that you need to look at when you’re in the face of adversity, in order to survive and prosper after a challenge.
And these case studies aren’t the only good examples, take the story of Malala. Her story about fighting for girls education could represent all 4 of the keywords. She was resilient for a long time as she wasn’t allowed to go to school, and she never stopped fighting. She overcame a huge adversity after she survived a gunshot wound, that changed the course of her journey. Her hope and resilience never seemed to waiver as she grew stronger, and is now doing great work in the fight for young girls education.
Ultimately, having these 4 things doesn’t mean that you will survive a gunshot, or live through a shark attack. However, you’re journey on the other side of survival could be improved greatly if you do learn and grow to be a resilient and hopeful person. There is no telling what will happen on a day to day basis, but there is also no age limit to becoming a person who can grow and develop ways to be resilient through adversities big or small. What makes the difference between a story of hope and a story of despair, is how the people involved took the struggle. Without hope, a challenge is a wall, with hope, it is a building block to the next chapter.
indiras • April 18, 2023