Option B: Stories of resilience

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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.”

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

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

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

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

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

“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”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“My diagnosis was a turning point.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“We’ve turned the typical bucket list into a “f*cket list” and do things we would’ve otherwise passed on before.”

“These days, I choose to celebrate February 14th as a day of love.”

What I’ve learned over the 19 Christmases since my husband died

“Raising Olivia is nowhere near as hard as I imagined; the biggest thing that has changed is my capacity to love.”

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

How to conquer loneliness during the holidays

“What if we get to choose how we show up for hard moments?”

“We continued to thrive to the extent possible because an army of loved ones held us fast through the tortured holiday season.”

Grief may change some holiday traditions, but you can create new ones

The holidays are hard if you struggle with mental illness—don’t blame yourself

“My desire to experience Christmas authentically was my motivation to come out to my family.”

"We grieve because we love. How lucky we are to have experienced that love."

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Resilience is like a muscle. We’re here to help you build it.

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