Best Summer of My Life

Somewhere between 1987 and 1989, I learned strength.

I know exactly how it began: a broken heart and the face-slap of reality that accompanied it. I had been desperartely hurt, and when I patched myself back together I was not quite the same person I had been before.

I came out of that heartbreak feeling that the world had taken a turn for the nasty. But I went to university and then I went to Japan. I did things I never thought I would have the courage to do. And when I took a moment to think back on what I had done, I realized that that breaking moment in my life was what had made it all possible.

I had learned the kind of person I truly was. I had learned what friendship was. I had learned to be brave. It was not an instant thing, of course, but the pain from that heartbreak had changed me profoundly.

Good for you. Now go learn something.

It's tempting to think that only the good things in life have value, but we need to get the most out of our bad experiences as well. Why let them bring you down when you can use them to lift you up?

Do I wish I had not been so badly hurt when I was seventeen? Sure, but would I trade in the person I am today?

Never.