Turning Adversity into Opportunity: The Power of Youth Resilience

By: Sanah Jivani

Trigger Warning: Self-harm, suicidal thoughts, low self-image

At 12 years old, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Alopecia and lost all of my hair within 24 hours. I felt completely broken.

I lost all of my hair overnight,

I was left without a way to fight.

And with every strand of hair,

I decided I no longer cared

I no longer cared what happened to my body,

I just wanted to feel free.

I wanted to be in control, I wanted to win.

I grabbed a blade, and turned to my skin.

The words people said were so mean,

cyberbullying on every screen.

and as the words echoed through my head,

the voices were so loud, I would rather be dead

At this time, hope seemed non-existent, and I struggled to believe that things would get better. I no longer believed I had a voice, and I no longer saw a future for myself. I felt purposeless, struggling to know how I could contribute to the world.

Thankfully, I came to a realization:

When you hurt, you will heal

so don’t run away from what you feel.

You will learn to feel okay,

You won’t always feel this way.

Thankfully, I was able to look deep inside of myself and find a little bit of strength to help myself push through. This strength reminded me of my worth, courage, and resilience. For the first time in a long time, I felt empowered.

Once I made peace within myself, I knew there was a unique kind of peace I could offer others. I once again thought about healing, this time, from the perspective of service.

Where you hurt, you can heal.

You can help others feeling what you feel.

Once you heal, once you’ve grown,

you can show others they’re not alone

I can full-heartedly say that youth activism saved my life. I felt so empowered that I began to believe I had a voice. I used my voice to share my story and advocate for other students who were struggling. I never wanted anyone to go through what I went through. I wanted to make sure that every student at the adequate social and emotional learning resources they needed.

Speak up and speak loud,

use your voice and be proud.

Be proud of what you’ve been through.

And think about the work it will help you do.

Healing others is the key,

healing others can set you free.

And as you heal others from their pain

you will continue to feel released from your own chains

First, I had to personally heal from my own struggles and trauma. I had to feel strong, brave, and resilient. This healing was necessary to help me serve others. After focusing on my own healing, I was able to turn my adversity into an opportunity to serve others. I felt I had found my purpose.

In class, I heavily reflected on these themes and concepts. Should individuals have to use their trauma to heal others? Do people have a responsibility to do this? Should your purpose be related to helping others heal?

To me, the answer to these questions heavily depends on the individual. For some, using personal experiences to heal others can be extremely empowering. For others, reliving their past traumas only adds to their hurt. However, there is one thing I firmly believe: Encouraging a love for service and service-learning can be beneficial and healing for all young people.

Throughout history, we have seen youth activists stand up and find their voices. I believe the act of serving others, whether you choose to incorporate your personal experiences into your work or not, can be healing. For me, serving others saved my life.

So where does this leave us? Do we encourage young people to open up about their experiences? Do we incorporate more opportunities for service into social and emotional learning programming? I believe we need to start by providing meaningful, diverse, and accessible service opportunities to every student. Every student should have access to the opportunity to serve, find their voice, and speak up for their community.

The strength, confidence, and sense of purpose that can be found through service is unique and beautiful. I want every student to feel like they have a voice and can make an active contribution to their community. This act alone can improve a students confidence and mental wellness.

I want to emphasize once again that before these service opportunities are provided, we must encourage students to make peace within themselves. It is important to find inner-peace before trying to bring peace to the world. Before providing meaningful service opportunities, we must teach students how to serve and listen to themselves.

I firmly believe that personal healing combined with the opportunity to heal others can be transformative, and hope to see a curriculum grounded in these principles. My non-profit organization provides social and emotional learning programming through a service-learning model, to encourage this kind of transformative healing. Healing through service encourages both individual and collective healing. I share my story because I want to be an advocate for student activism, giving students a voice to advocate for both themselves and others.