It’s a classic storyline: people are faced with major challenges, they overcome them, and they come out on the other side stronger than they were before. But even though that plot can be overdone in movies and books, it’s a cliché for a reason.
The classic storyline that is often overdone in books and movies revolves around a protagonist facing turbulent challenges in life and finally overcoming it and emerging stronger. This is, precisely, the baseline of writer and activist Andrew Solomon’s 2014 TED Talk in which he narrates how adversity is the core of our existence. In his talk titled, ‘How the worst moments in our lives make us who we are’ he explains how overcoming obstacles not only makes us stronger but more resilient and appreciative of life.
Solomon lectures that when we experience any traumatic event or struggle, it becomes an inherent part of us, but the meaning we extract from those battles and our subsequent metamorphosis from those experiences truly determines our identities.
“You need to take the traumas and make them part of who you’ve come to be, and you need to fold the worst events of your life into a narrative of triumph, evincing a better self in response to things that hurt,” Solomon says.
In a truly inspiring example. Solomon uses his sexuality — of being gay — as an example of how he has transformed as an individual. He narrates how he had gone to great lengths to try to be ‘straight’, but those challenges helped him realize his true identity and today he is an LGBTQ activist who is in a happy marriage with children!
Living a career narrating the hardships of others, Solomon has come full circle by describing his childhood of adversity while parallelly contrasting it with anecdotes of courageous people he has met before.
“Forging meaning is about changing yourself. Building identity is about changing the world,” he says.
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