resilience, the essence of the strong.

Dictionary.com defines "Resilience" as

1.	the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.

2.	ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.

I stumbled upon the following article on nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/us/01survival.html

Summing up the article, the paper interviewed professionals around the U.S who lost their jobs as a result of the economy downturn. People who used to make six figures, or close-to-six figures, are working as janitors, phone marketers, delivery man, etc. (making as low as $12 /hour)

And it is incredible to see how people react and adopt to sudden changes in their lives. It is unquestionable that all these sudden changes cause not only financial problems, but also a severe damage on their self-esteem. The interview in the article indicates that the psychological adjustment was really hard for them. Imagine you are making way above-average income living above-average lifestyle. All of sudden, you are making $12 / hour.

These people readily took up the challenges and moved on. In the midst of financial troubles and psychological adjustment, people exhibited an extreme level of resilience. And I think human, by nature, admires people who possess those character traits. (perhaps this could explain why "Pursuit of Happiness" was so popular.)

And I'm very fortunate to have very resilient friends around me. I have a high respect for my friends who are paying their own tuition. Another good friend of mine is taking care of his high school sister while he, himself, is studying as an international students in the United States.


For me, living a life as a college student isn't always fun. I mean it is fun...and no complain here. In fact, I'm enjoying a lot. But I'm realizing there are hard moments in life. Tasks or challenges that may seem insignificant to adults are still very HARD for an extremely immature and not-wise-at-all college student like me.

Working as a RA, serving in a church, engineering school, being a good friend/family member, and taking care of my life require pretty high level of self-discipline, time management, focus, and drive...none of them I had enough.

I'm going through a great challenge, yet this challenge has been incredibly rewarding. It helped me tremendously to improve my skills to be resilient. Taking initiative, managing time better, enduring tough times, handling stress. I desire to be a man of God who would consider trials as a pure joy. (James 1:2~8)

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.