Resilience: The Realisation!

My first memory of being resilient!

My earliest memory of being resilient would have to be from my first year in boarding school. I was seven years old and was admitted to one of the leading boarding schools of the country. Yes, I was a bright kid who cleared the entrance to secure a spot in the school. I even remember writing an essay on “My Camera” even without owning one. But, I was coming from a small town from the Rajasthan Punjab border where I lived in my own small, protected world. Going from there to a strictly english speaking school with students coming from all parts of the country was indeed daunting at first. The first year was particularly hard, I remember crying inconsolably whenever my family visited.

My performance in the first term exams was poor for obvious reasons. All the crying and home sickness barely gave me the time or stamina to focus elsewhere. Cut to the day when the half yearly exams results were announced. I was ranked 6th in my class. My class teacher, Ms Shobha Gupta who I still remember very fondly announced in front of the whole class that I had moved from being ranked at the bottom of the class to the 6th position in mere 3-4 months.

Now, how did I do that? I cant really remember the details or the days when I must have pulled up my stockings or told myself that “hey, its you! Aditi! Buck up!” But that’s what must have happened right! After having gradually made friends, settling in the hostel routine, I was getting back up on my feet. Yes, I was being resilient. Resilient to the challenges of being in a new environment, of having to cope to this new world I now inhabited. Little things like being mindful of how you ate and sat at the dining table. We had school captains watching over us, guiding us and teaching us table manners. We had to follow rules everywhere and face consequences if we didn’t comply.

The ability to cope and rise above challenges that I honed in those formative years of my life have helped me become a confident person capable of adapting to change. As years are passing by, I do need constant reminders of this fact and of how much potential we have to always find a way out, to always bounce back. What we do on a daily basis to remind ourselves of our innate strength and potential is something we need to figure out and practice consistently. For me it is coaching, writing and spending time with myself while working out.

What is yours?