photo credit: Daily Bruin

I came across an article in the Daily Bruin earlier this week talking about a first-year student who is battling cancer.  He’s not only going through various procedures to fight against the disease, he’s excelling academically and professionally.  It’s just another reminder that sometimes the worse off someone seems to be, the better off they can be.  Often experiencing a traumatic or otherwise negative life-altering event can show people the light and make them appreciate what they had and what they have.  Of course, there are also those who struggle in the face of adversity and fall to the wayside.  When you get stuck in a deep pothole, it’s either two extremes – you choose to look out at the light and work towards it, or you choose to look down at the darkness surrounding you and give up hope.

So really, the pressure of extreme circumstances can bring out the best and the worst.  This also reminds me of how people who tend to excel at something tend to excel at pretty much everything they do.  It’s a way of life, a certain discipline that drives them to do well, no matter what they’re doing.  Similarly, people who go through a tragedy or near-death experience are then infused with the drive to pursue excellence.  After all, many take it as an all or nothing issue, especially if they’re dying (faster than normal, that is).  I always thought this was an interesting phenomenon and I’ve wondered how I would take a terrible blow in my life.  I would hope that I would be the type who would turn things around and even do better than I had been, with a newfound zest for the life I almost lost sight of.

It’s always encouraging to hear stories like this, where people stop worrying about what will happen to them and how or how long they’ll live it out, but start to focus on what they can do in the mean time to make the best of it.  Crazy isn’t it?  Sometimes it takes a brush with death to truly live, or at least live a more rich life than before.  I think to a certain extent it is a desire to show people that not only are they going to defy the odds, they’re going to beat them and thrive.  And thus out of tragedy is born excellence.  Like they say, a diamond is only created under high pressure.  What better pressure is there than a threat to your life as you know it?