A Challenge That Defines Our Lives

It is human nature to group together to fight a shared threat

By Susan C. Ryan

Often, the challenges we each face are what define our lives. Some are positive, exciting or fun, and others are demanding, stressful and even dire. If this spectrum of challenges didn’t exist, what would be the composition of our life?

Our response to these tests varies based on a hundred different factors, things like our age, supports we have, anticipated outcomes, and, of course, the challenge itself. Once a challenge has been encountered, we may experience that same thing in a completely different way later in life based on all the variables of the time.

Looking back on these situations and what gave us the strength and resilience to move through and past them is sometimes never done until a person encounters something similar again or knows someone who is facing a similar challenge. It may only be then that we openly reflect on the past. That’s a shame since it’s the totality of our experience, including reflecting on how we handled it, which enriches our life and often supports a better future for ourselves and others.

Right now, the world is collectively experiencing the same challenge related to Covid-19. This is a very uncommon occurrence in our human history. Working on how we adjust our response as we move through this crisis should be a collective imperative. Every imaginable variable is at play, yet we all want the same outcome. We want Covid to be eradicated or that we be given the means to at least avoid its impact, including illness or death. There can be no more important collective goal. We want our world back, along with all the things we enjoyed about life.

It’s also clearly a marathon and not a sprint to get to any type of defined finish line, what some call the new normal.

THE WORLD AS WE KNEW IT HAS CHANGED, and we still don’t know what the future will bring. We are relying on smart people around the globe to help us understand how to move through and past this. We need each other. We need to each be strong and resilient in the face of dangerous and shifting unknowns. We need to dig down deep and access the resilience we each have so we can fight through this while staying calm and positive.

We must also acknowledge everyone will individually experience this differently, in order to help us all get through it together. We need to accept this is going to take time.

Resilience has perhaps never mattered more. By definition it’s comprised of flexibility, strength, toughness and ability to recover and return to our original form after having been stressed by change. How we respond to life’s challenges varies, but the tools we amass, the inner strength we grow and then constantly access so we can thrive, are vital to our survival right now.

It is human nature to quickly group together to immediately fight a shared threat and we’ve done that. It’s also human nature to want a threat to go away and become more stressed or irritated when it doesn’t. We can’t allow ourselves to become impatient since that will help no one. We need to recognize this is hard and try to support each other, knowing no matter how hard we try to be strong and brave, people will struggle.

Now is not the time to give up, nor allow ourselves to become divided or pretend the threat is gone. We must remain vigilant and resilient, and we must do this together for the entire marathon if we are to succeed in eliminating or at least quelling this global Covid challenge. Whenever you can, share your resilience and hope others will do the same when you need it most. We need each other more than ever, so we can finish this marathon safely and together. ¥

Susan C. Ryan most recently was president and CEO of Spaulding Youth Center, now Spaulding Academy & Family Services, in Northfield.