You Are Resilient
I’ve been sitting at my computer for the last two hours, grinding out item drops on the MMO video game “World of Warcraft”. My headphone battery is recharging so instead of watching videos or listening to music as usual, I’ve just had the game music playing from my speakers and no other distractions around me. While I was physically playing the game, I was mentally and emotionally reflecting. It was odd, but I was doing it almost compulsively. It was like my brain finally felt like since I wasn’t giving it new or just extra stuff to listen to or think about, it was time to reflect on stuff that’s already happened. To process, understand, and accept. I thought about decisions I’ve made in my life- how they impacted myself and other people. How other peoples’ decisions impacted me. I thought about the people I’ve met throughout my life, and what they taught me. The joys I’ve experienced, and pain I’ve carried. And one thing, one word kept coming back to me: Resilience. I believe that at the core of every human being is resilience. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of resilience is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change”. But I think that that’s underselling it. Resilience is working a shitty job that barely pays the bills but being able to watch your favorite YouTube videos once or twice a week. Resilience is after suffering a heartbreaking loss crying your eyes out and remembering what your loved one did for you, gave to you, taught you, and carrying that with you for the rest of your life- refusing to let the flame of their memory extinguish. Resilience is even after living through traumatic events, you found yourself on Tumblr, maybe on your computer, or laptop, or phone. You’re still here, reading the words of a stranger, and (hopefully!) finding some comfort in knowing that there’s someone out there who believes that your ability to make it through this isn’t a bug- it’s a feature. Your ability to get through this is built in at your core. The size of that core doesn’t matter- you don’t need to be doing nuclear fusion level resilience to be human. Even if your resilience is eroded, weathered, and ground into barely dust, *you still have resilience*. It is there, within you, at your core, and you just need to tap into it, hold it close, and not let go. I can’t possibly know everything (or really, anything) about the people who read this blog or this post. But if there’s one thing I can say for sure, it’s that You. Are. Resilient. Do not let anyone, including yourself, deny you that resilience. Find it, and tuck it away in a safe place, in your body or mind or soul. And foster it. Don’t let go. And you’ll be able to make it through anything -as long as you hold onto it, no matter the size, shape, or strength of it. I know I’m just another random person on the internet. But I hope these words brought you some comfort, peace, or warmth. Most of all, I hope they brought you closer to *your* resilience- maybe you just opened your eyes to it for the first time, maybe you know about it and have already been tending to it.
Whatever the case may be- I’m proud of you. And I hope you find your resilience, and hold it close and never let go. You are worth it. You were built for this. You can do this. I believe in you. <3














