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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

Divorce & Family Challenges

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

By Vernon Turner

Hate & Violence

“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

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

Hate & Violence

“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.”

Divorce & Family Challenges

“Shame thrives in secrecy. Having such a public healing and a public acceptance has really helped me.”

By Catherine Hoke

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

“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

"I look back and wonder how I survived knowing that he was dying. It was unstoppable."

By Christina Rasmussen

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, to lose everything I had built.”

There is both a harsh reality and a profound wisdom in accepting that some losses cannot be explained or redeemed.

“It takes time, determination, and the effort to reinvent yourself. You will change; it’s inevitable.”

By Bobbi Huffman

Raising Resilient Kids

“I have decided that the best act of service to myself, the children, and Linda, is to choose a life of meaning and happiness.”

By Gareth Jones

“What I do know is that her death has taught me how I want to live—with joy, gratitude, adventure, and hope.”

By Becca Bernstein

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

“We have to raise our frequency to see the beauty in life—and when it knocks you down, you get back up, every time.”

By Eric Hodgdon

"I remember what it is like to feel as if I am drowning. But I also realize that I am capable of kicking back to the surface."

By Catherine Jones

Health, Illness & Injury

“Emily’s Entourage has allowed me to change paralyzing fear into something infinitely more powerful—hope and impact.”

By Emily Kramer-Golinkoff

Divorce & Family Challenges

“Allow yourself to feel everything you’re feeling right now. Let the hurt move through you. Then you can move on.”

Photography credits

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