Grow Through What You Go Through

"Uprooted and lonely, still I endure, inner strength woven to my core." ~Angie Weiland Crosby

Life doesn’t come with instructions and sometimes the only way to mature and grow is by facing the hard things. We have to ride out the storm through to the other side. Through these hardships we learn self-reliance, resourcefulness, and critical thinking skills. As a young adult, I never had a true support system in place and these skills became my tools for survival.

Self-reliance, resourcefulness, and critical thinking skills often go hand-in-hand. Resourcefulness requires critical thinking skills. Self-reliance forces you to keep going even when no one else is standing in your corner.

Self-reliance is the ability to depend on your own efforts, judgment, and resources rather than needing help or support from others. It means you trust your own skills to solve problems, make choices, and take care of your daily needs. Self-reliance builds the skills to be independent, trusting your own judgement in order to solve problems. It builds the confidence you need to use your abilities to get things done.

Resourcefulness is the practical ability to solve problems, overcome challenges, and manage difficult situations using cleverness, imagination, and the tools or materials available at hand. It takes a fair amount of creativity to be resourceful. These things can lead a person to be adaptable and independent.

Critical thinking skills are the ability to clearly analyze, evaluate, and interpret facts and information to form a smart judgment or solve a problem. Key components include analysis, problem-solving, and open-mindedness. Critical thinking allows us to analyze information and understand the world around us. Critical thinking forces us to be unbiased in order to take in new information.

It takes a lot of strength and bravery to go through life on your own. You have to learn lessons the hard way because there is no manual for surviving in adulthood. It takes a lot of trial and error, yet there are still lessons to learn, mistakes to be made.

I have made so many mistakes in my life, but ending up homeless and jobless is the one that hurts me the most. At one point I had so many good things going for me and I just threw it all away. I did what I always would in the past; I tried (and failed) to run away from my problems. Unfortunately, that only got me so far.

It was only when I finally faced my fears and had to learn how to do the adult things on my own that I began to grow as a person. I spent so much of my life depending on others until there was no one left to depend on. I burned too many bridges, ruined so many opportunities. I can’t go back, but I can learn from my past and be a better person for future me. God has great plans for me and I had to stop running in order to see the amazing things he will do in my life.

I don’t regret the hard things I have dealt with because it all made me who I am today, and it all taught me things that will take me through to the end. My only hope is that you can learn from my mistakes and do better than I did.

Until the next Spark,

Kat