This month’s topic for Robert Hruzek’s writing challenge is What I Learned From Adversity. Hey, I can do that. As the saying goes, it’s a piece of cake. I’ve been plagued “blessed” with chronic eyestrain since I was a kid. That means if I read (or drive) too much my eyes not only start to ache, I also get fierce headaches and get dizzy. If I’m bullheaded enough to keep going they stop focusing for a while and can be utterly useless for days. It was especially bad in college. It was hard to enjoy the blessings of taking long walks when everyone else was studying for exams.
I haven’t had a bad episode for years, so I must be doing something right. Oh, sometimes I wish I could sit down and read a good book from cover to cover or that I could drive more, but mostly I can figure out how to do what I want to do.
Welcome Adversity? Are You Kidding?
It’s hard to argue with Robert when he writes:
Hey, nobody loves adversity, right? I mean, sure, there’s all that stuff about welcoming adversity because there’s probably a lesson to be learned from it. Yada, yada, yada.
I mean, c’mon; who really welcomes it into their lives?
BUT (and that’s a really BIG ‘but’), the fact remains that adversity is still one of the best teachers I know.
Or, to put it more simply:
If you have to go through the pain you might as well get something out of it.
I’ve told myself that more than once. 😉
Finding the Treasure
I agree with the people who call that something the “treasure” of the experience. I like the term because it means we sometimes have to go digging. It usually doesn’t jump up and bite us on the nose.
So what’s been the treasure for me?
- I’ve learned to plan ahead. If my eyes are involved at all then waiting until the last minute isn’t an option. I can never completely trust my eyes, and the stress of time-pressure is guaranteed to cause them to have a fit.
- I’ve learned to read less and think more. That’s one of the reasons I majored in physics…it required a lot of thinking and creative problem solving but had a light reading load. It’s also one of the reasons I’m so interested in behavior modification and personal growth…I always have my own subject to observe and experiments to perform. It’s a minimal burden on my eyes.
- I’m overwhelmed with gratitude. Now-a-days there are audio books which weren’t available to me when I was younger. And there are a lot of projects I can work on now without hitting a brick wall as soon as I start building momentum. Computers in particular have been a blessing. Because I can stand back from the screen and expand the font size, I can do a lot more work on a computer than I can on the printed or written page. I’ll never take that for granted.
What About You?
Have you ever found treasure in adversity?
