I’ve always been the kind of person who believes when tragedy or difficult times strike that’s when its time to put your best face forward and show the world your internal strength. I’ve had my fair share of struggles but when my friend Ali told me the news this morning I just thought, “This is too much for one person to bear…” yet he’s done it so gracefully and it makes me realize there is always someone out there who has had it worse and who has dealt with it better. Ali got bad news mid-December that his dad had a heart attack and died. He flew back to Jordan to attend the funeral and while he was there his mother had a stroke. She was improving, plus he had no choice but to return to Durham for school in January if he wanted to finish his Master’s. Last week his mom suddenly passed away and he had to fly back to Jordan to bury his other parent. Only being able to take a few days off from classes he had to make it a quick trip and came back working round-the-clock to get caught up.

This reminds me that it isn’t so much what happens to us in life, but it’s our response to those events. We can let even the smallest bumps in the road shape us in negative ways, or we can learn to deal with them and keep moving forward. If we can’t handle the small stuff, we’ll be crushed to the point of no return when the really challenging times come along. That doesn’t mean we won’t grieve or get frustrated and even occasionally get stuck – but we can’t lose sight of who we want to be and what we want to achieve.

Ali has proved that this is possible and his honesty and determination has been inspirational to me.