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Connect through stories

Stories have the power to inspire, strengthen, and heal. And the stories we tell, especially about how we overcome adversity, help shape how we think about our lives. We have a lot to learn from each other and a lot to say. What’s your story?

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Stories of resilience

“When you go through a really hard time there are things that you can learn. And they make you stronger.”

By Gabrielle Reece

“I’ve left Syria, but I’m not free. The fight starts when you flee. But it doesn’t have an end.”

By Sana Mustafa

Divorce & Family Challenges

“If I didn’t pull this off, my family was gone. So I gave it everything I had.”

By Vernon Turner

“She's always going to be in our memory. She's always going to be in our hearts.”

By Kyrie Irving, as told to The Shared Grief Project

Abuse & Sexual Assault

“I’ve got nothing to lose in trying to live the biggest life I can.”

By Kathy Andersen

“I’d always been the moon to my mom’s bright shining sun. How do you live without the sun?”

By Christa Fletcher

Health, Illness & Injury

“Option B means realizing that you’re reinventing yourself. There’s no rule book. There’s no guide. It’s about going back to life”

By Allen Rucker

“On my eighteenth birthday, I was sent to prison with a sentence of fifteen years and two felonies.”

By Danny Murillo

Health, Illness & Injury

“Having two kids with muscular dystrophy has changed how we view the future. We seize every chance to enjoy the time we have.”

By Char & Scott Frewing

“I am a motherless daughter, now fatherless too, but I am not without heart and resilience and grit.”

By Valeria Palmertree

Divorce & Family Challenges

“When I was 15, I found out I was pregnant. I just didn’t want to believe it.”

By Guadalupe Valencia

Raising Resilient Kids

“Walking alongside a child who is grieving is unlike anything else.”

By Ila Rosengarten

“My dad discovered he had a son less than a minute before he discovered he had lost his son.”

By Byron Auguste

“When you’re a person the world is trying to erase, enjoying the world is truly radical. It’s a revolutionary act.”

“For the first time, I was truly choosing to happen to life, rather than letting life happen to me. I was choosing resiliency.”

By Angie Mozilo

Abuse & Sexual Assault

“I’ve helped others heal, which gives me an immense sense of meaning and purpose.”

By Dr. Michelle Stevens

Health, Illness & Injury

“My grandma told me that once I shake someone’s hand, my disability goes away.”

By Kyle Maynard

Raising Resilient Kids

“Our first challenge was to protect her, to let her know that she was valued. And heard. And believed.”

“I instantly connected him to Leo. I felt that maybe the universe was trying to tell me something.”

Abuse & Sexual Assault

“I want more people to understand that women don’t have to be abused.”

By Gloria Marina Icu Puluc

Health, Illness & Injury

“My diagnosis was a turning point.”

By A'Driane Nieves

“I have to keep going for the kids, but more than that, I’m sustained by the thought that I mustn’t let George down.”

“I had always thought, ‘What’s in it for me?’ But seeing these volunteer teachers inspired me to give back.”

By Dmitriy Orlov

Divorce & Family Challenges

“It was something that was swept under the rug. We didn’t talk about it for many years.”

By Anthony Ocampo

Health, Illness & Injury

“The hardest part was realizing that my life would be put on pause.”

By Layth Ramatala

“When we lose someone we love, we should remember that the person has not become nothing.”

“I had lived through the end of the world before I had even experienced truly living in it.”

By Cynthia Dokas whipple

“For anyone who has experienced a great loss or setback, you will laugh again, you will smile again, and you will find joy.”

By Hilarie DeNoon

Health, Illness & Injury

“Happiness is not something given to you or earned; it is something you decide.”

By Jennifer Hahne

“I am my mother’s daughter. I, too, am tough as nails. I, too, have a strong heart.”

By Valerie Garcia

“My sister and I went through all five stages of grief before we hit the lobby. We kept getting stuck on denial.”

By Cheryl Kravitz

“Coping with grief is awful enough without adding the worry that your career has been derailed.”

Health, Illness & Injury

“When people show signs of giving up, that’s actually when they need you the most.”

By Paraag Marathe

"Some days, making the decision to go for a run instead of doing something self-destructive is my version of strong."

By Rachel Hoffman

“Each day that I get out of bed, smile, and laugh with my family is a true gift that I don't take lightly.”

By Karen Peloquin

Divorce & Family Challenges

“I got the greatest help from an unexpected source—my amazing children.”

Photography credits

Special thanks to Norman Jean Roy and Getty Images for capturing these powerful images of resilience.