"Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths." — Epictetus
I am grateful for the classmate who told me, "The son of a janitor doesn't belong here." I am grateful for the college counselor who told me, "To aim lower." And I am grateful for every person who has placed a roadblock in my way.
Because in overcoming, you grow.
Overcoming teaches us how: to persevere, to believe in yourself, and to remain humble. Life's taught me this. If you want to become better and do the most good you possibly can, you must overcome and help those behind you do the same.
I am a first-generation middle school, high-school, college, and soon to be PhD graduate. I am proud of my upbringing, growing up in a vibrant Mexican community in Chicago. I am proud of my father's dedication to his work as a janitor. I am proud of my mother's dedication to their community as a lunch lady.
Many moments of my life can be interpreted as "hard". I, now, prefer to think of them as "trials". In high school, I studied for classes while living in a two bedroom apartment with six other family members. In college, I visited my dying grandpa in an under-resourced hospital in Mexico — where I saw rats scurry when I entered the room. In grad school, I lived in Minneapolis during COVID and the George Floyd riots. And today, I am living through growing US political divides, a 'potential' recession, and during a period where global anxieties seem at an all time high — while trying to build a company.
Each one of the previous sentences could be expanded on into pages and pages. They could be pages and pages where I describe my anxieties, my troubles, and my downfall. Or, they could be pages and pages where I describe my effort, my discipline, and my triumph. Ultimately, our actions fill those pages.
The interesting thing about this is… there is nothing unique about my struggle. It's merely a slightly different shade of the same color. Every human being across the world faces their own battles, and they suffer their own scars. Yes, the magnitudes of difficulty vary, but it all ends with the same conclusion: 'Life is hard'. But who ever said it was easy?
My personal experiences were hard, but they shaped me. I've learned difficulties test you. Difficulties shape you. And, most importantly, difficulties build you. Choosing to do hard things for the sake of growth and not the outcome is one the biggest personal lessons that I've learned.
I used to complain and see my upbringing as a disability. No longer. I see my upbringing as an overwhelming advantage. I was given a strong purpose on a bronze-platter. I bring passion and focus to all of my work because of these experiences. When I work on techniques that cut the costs of medical technology, I visualize how it'll affect my community in Chicago and my family in Mexico. When I pursue larger and larger goals, I visualize how having a role model will affect my nephews and family. And when I see how others fall along the way, I am grateful to have been given the chance to overcome these challenges and hope that I can make the path easier for others.
It's easy to forget what we are all capable of. It is easy to forget that "We suffer more in imagination than we do in reality.", and it is easy to forget that the quality of our days are ultimately up to us. In particular because in the modern-age, distractions are all around us. Our phones ping seemingly every minute. Our attention is pulled by YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, etc…. It's hard to remember what we are capable of. It is hard to remember just how much previous generations have overcome — and how you can do the same. It is hard to sit-down, read, reflect, and ask yourself the tough question: 'What do I want to do with my life?' and 'Why?'.
To me, the biggest problem with all this noise is it makes us forget just how precious life is. We know how every life ends. We just don't know when. During this short time, will we be broken by our challenges? Be distracted by the noise? Or will we instead choose to be grateful, overcome, and remain focused on being and doing good?
Only our actions will show the answers to these questions.
"Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters." — Seneca