Survivor's Day

I was recently listening to a Ted Talks podcast titled “To Endure,” when I came across an idea that I just loved and had to share!The show included an interview with Monica Lewinsky, who gave a Ted Talk about her experience of the Clinton scandal. She did something stupid at a young and impressionable age that turned her life so upside-down that she had a hard time finding work or even volunteering. But she eventually was able to get her life back and was stronger for it.We all face difficulties in our lives. Often, we’ll look back on those experiences as turning points in our life – a point after which you were never the same. And while that experience may have been the most difficult time of your life, you can be thankful for it. You’re a better, stronger person now because of it.Every year, Monica and her family celebrate the anniversary of what she thought of as the worst day of her life. They call it Survivor’s Day!As soon as I heard that, I immediately knew I had to incorporate it into my life. After I returned home from over a year and a half in Afghanistan, I was not the same person. That was the most difficult period of my life. I didn’t think I was going to make it. But today, I know that experience made me more resilient, stronger in some ways, and softer in other ways (where I needed it!).What did you survive? How can you honor the experience(s) that made you who you are today? Maybe you survived losing your job. A divorce. An illness. It can be anything! This is one thing that unites us as human beings – we’ve all overcome something. And we should celebrate it!