you can do it !!

dont u ever get a bit peeved by those people who tirelessly doubt themselves, and let the littlest adverse situations get them down? i guess we all tend to be a bit pessimistic at least once in a while, but all we need to do sometimes is look to the examples set by others to pull ourselves back up....

last week i attended a seminar featuring Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison. for those of you who dont know who she is, here's a brief bio: Dr. Jamison is head professor of Psychology in a some crappy med school called Johns Hopkins University....she also happens to be one of the world's foremost experts on bipolar disorder and a variety of other mental illnesses. she had written numerous books and scientific papers, and is considered one of the most respected and accomplished professionals in her field. pretty impressive, eh? well, my friends, thats not the impressive part. what really makes her a warrior is that she has managed to accomplish all this while herself suffering from the disease she is a great expert on, bipolar disorder. Dr. Jamison spent her whole life battling clinical depression, numerous suicide attempts, frustration and mental anguish; but she managed to overcome, and her work has opened the door for millions of people suffering from mental illness around the world to better deal with, and overcome, these frightening diseases.

think thats something? it really is, but it can be matched by the exploits of her late husband, Dr. Richard Wyatt...Dr. Wyatt succumbed to lung cancer in 2002, but prior to this was head of surgery at the medical school of UCLA...quite a feat for a man who from a young age was diagnosed with dyslexia....indeed, although every sentence Dr. Wyatt wrote was a struggle, he managed to somehow super-cede these and publish 6 books and over 800 scientific papers during his career....

ever heard of Vera Bhajan? a young woman, studying law at the University of the West Indies....an A student, on government scholarship.....quite an achiever some might say....but what makes her any different from the scores of other scholarship winners produced in the republic of Trinidad & Tobago each year? perhaps its the fact that Vera Bhajan was born without arms....she has lived her whole life doing everyday tasks using her feet...bathing, cooking, cleaning, eating.....and writing exams....and she did well enough to win herself a government scholarship and earn a competitive spot in the prestigious UWI LLB program....she is currently an academic achiever par excellence.....and she has done it all with only her lower limbs..

there are many other stories i can bring to your attention, but i think i have said enough to get to my point....we often complain & feel sorry for ourselves when the cards are stacked against us, and we look for every excuse for why we do not achieve our potential...these stories remind us of the remarkable nature of the human spirit, and show us that with self-belief and determination, we can achieve just about anything in spite of hurdles that befall us in this life...so instead of settling for mediocrity, or giving up at the first sign of distress, i hope we may look towards these stories for inspiration, so that no matter our struggle or situation, we will be able to overcome, and be the best we can be.....