What has been your biggest challenge in life, and what did you learn from it?

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  Nov 20, 2012 12:52 AM GMT

  Mine, Brain Injury. I had an accident at the end of summer last year. I can say it was a near death experience. I was in comma for a week, and my chances of surviving were not that great. God decided to leave me on earth. When i recovered conciousness, I wasn't able to walk, and I had a real bad speech problem.
  Patience and perseverance have been the greatest things i have learned among other things. I continue to recover, now it's just a mild problem with walking and speech, but I know I'll be as successful as I wanna be in life.
  
  Want to share?

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  Nov 20, 2012 2:46 AM GMT

  That's amazing! good for you!
  
  My biggest challenge is knowing when to hold on and when to let go.
  
  Somehow on my journey I found Faith. My Faith is this in summary:
  It's not about me.
  It's not about you.
  It's the connection that happens between us.
  
  
  
  A true compassionate act can and will never happen until there's an open connection, two people in service to each other. I realize today that my ego is the only cause of interference. Sometimes I must hold on to the essential parts of me even if I feel guilty about it. Other times I must let go of the terrible.
  
  I must always stay vigilant; glimpses of compassion happen very rarely often only in retrospect, but I call them clear paths to the 'Self'.
  
  Putting this into practice is difficult, because it affects every relationship in my life. We are nothing in the end but the connections we've made.

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• TheAlchemixt
  
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  Nov 20, 2012 3:53 AM GMT

  Breaking away from my Ex boyfriend that I still love. He was preventing me from becoming the person that I wanted to be.
  
  

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  Nov 20, 2012 3:56 AM GMT

  Going into heart failure...and realizing that someone would have to die so I can live. But I realize this is the best gift a human can give to another human...and Im living for the person who gave me this gift!
  
  It was a near death experience for me as well, as at the end I would just faint walking up a flight of stairs cause it was too stressful on my body. I was convinced I was going to die that I actually had a will typed up and I wrote letters to all my family and friends saying that I loved them. Writing those was physically the hardest thing I did in my life so far.
  
  Then when I finally had the surgery the recovery was equally challenging. I never knew pain like that existed. I literally prayed for death while drugged on Morphine.
  
  But I pulled through and I am healthier than I have ever been! Its also made me look at life differently and not take it so seriously as we can die any time. Also I looked back on my life and this was the time I realized you can't live life with regrets and accepted my sexuality

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  Nov 20, 2012 4:00 AM GMT

  Mine has been two parts;
  
  The first was ending a relationship with my partner of 6 years. It was a toxic, violent relationship that should have ended long ago, but I think we were both co-dependent on each other. The way we were going, one of us would have ended up dead, and I'm not even kidding.
  
  The second part was me leaving my life behind in DC to make my own in Miami. I literally just packed everything in my car and made the leap without any real back up plan. My ex literally took everything, but besides my dogs, they were just material things. Getting away from him was more important than a sofa. It was something I had to do to forge my own place in this world. It hasn't been easy, but I think I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
  
  If something is wrong in your life, change it. That's what I did.

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  Nov 20, 2012 4:00 AM GMT

  RadRTT said
  
  But I pulled through and I am healthier than I have ever been! Its also made me look at life differently and not take it so seriously as we can die any time.

  
  
  WOW!!!! so glad you made it and are still with us. Where would we be without your posts!
  
  For me: getting over my brother's untimely death and helping my parents through it. I learned that when people pass, I feel sad, yes, but more lucky to have had the great fortune, even for a while, to have walked together in this world with them.

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  Nov 20, 2012 4:20 AM GMT

  Glad to hear you are recovering and that you have an optimistic outlook on life.
  
  I had a near death experience once too and was sent back. When I came back, I looked upon the world with different eyes and still do to this day.
  
  Long story short, that experience made me go on to do things that I would never otherwise would have accomplished.

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  Nov 20, 2012 4:47 AM GMT

  Just trying to survive and making it this far has been a challenge and still work in progress. I am still going through mine. Is there really just one answer? Good topic! Thought provoking.

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  Nov 20, 2012 4:52 AM GMT

  Being homeless on and off from 2006 to 2011. I learned how to deal with hardships. make small amounts of money stretch and seen the best/worst in people lol

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  Nov 20, 2012 4:53 AM GMT

  Same as OP , i was injured in a commercial airplane crash back in 1979 , was 3 months in the hospital , one that i don't even remember because of the intense sedation i was on .
  This ordeal taught me everything about being patient !

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  Nov 20, 2012 5:01 AM GMT

  Wow this is a truly inspiring thread, a wonderful thing to read!

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  Nov 20, 2012 5:01 AM GMT

  Roguewave saidWow this is a truly inspiring thread, a wonderful thing to read!

  Seriously!!!!

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  Nov 20, 2012 5:03 AM GMT

  RadRTT said

  Roguewave saidWow this is a truly inspiring thread, a wonderful thing to read!

  Seriously!!!!

  
  This is probably one of THE reasons I love RJ!

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  Nov 20, 2012 5:03 AM GMT

  I was at a stop sign today and some stupid fucker texting kept waiting for all the other traffic to go, even though there was PLENTY time for him to go.
  
  I learned that the curb isn't such a bad place to drive, as long as you take precautions not to bottom out on your oil pan.

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  Nov 20, 2012 5:10 AM GMT

  Another sad, but true story.
  
  Suffered a 2 year depression in the middle of high school (to the point where I wrote a suicide note and planned my way out). My brother found my note and plan and had a family sit down.
  
  Rough time in my life, but I pulled through and still managed to get into elite colleges in the end. I'm much happier now and despite that extremely low pit, I somehow managed to crawl out.
  
  Today I realize there was some good in that came out of those dreadful 2 years.

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  Nov 20, 2012 5:38 AM GMT

  Roguewave saidWow this is a truly inspiring thread, a wonderful thing to read!

  
  
  

  Chuckles777 said
  
  Good topic! Thought provoking

  
  
  I apologize if I made anyone who has posted in this thread remember something they don't want to remember or think about.

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  Nov 20, 2012 5:39 AM GMT

  5 yrs ago, my sister died, then 3 months later my best friend, and i realized that life is too short to not be true to oneself....
  
  kinda lame compared to some, i know..
  
  cheers.

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  Nov 20, 2012 5:59 AM GMT

  hairyandym said5 yrs ago, my sister died, then 3 months later my best friend, and i realized that life is too short to not be true to oneself....
  
  kinda lame compared to some, i know..
  
  cheers.

  
  
  Not lame at all!!! we have all been through different experiences and were brought up under differing circumstances and we are all learning and growing at a different pace. So cheers to all of you! I love this site!

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• calibro
  
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  Nov 20, 2012 7:48 AM GMT

  i learned if you just give into the pain, you're body will just accept it

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  Nov 20, 2012 7:54 AM GMT

  My sister has serious mental issues, she once tried to kill me with a butcher knife and bloodily clawed both my arms when I tried to stop her. After this she downed and entire bottle of prescription pills and locked herself in her room. She had her stomach pumped later that night. My life kind of permanently changed that night.
  
  As far as what I learned....I dunno...that you'd be surprised how much damage fingernails can do to skin.

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  Nov 20, 2012 10:15 AM GMT

  Finally having the courage to forgive my older brother despite his tough love yet senseless mistreatment towards home.
  
  
  Moving to a different city and starting a new life 250 miles away from home.

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  Nov 20, 2012 10:22 AM GMT

  Ariodante saidMy sister has serious mental issues, she once tried to kill me with a butcher knife and bloodily clawed both my arms when I tried to stop her. After this she downed and entire bottle of prescription pills and locked herself in her room. She had her stomach pumped later that night. My life kind of permanently changed that night.
  
  As far as what I learned....I dunno...that you'd be surprised how much damage fingernails can do to skin.

  
  
  The physical pain doesn't even come close...

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  Nov 20, 2012 11:01 AM GMT

  Moving to a new city 3000km from home knowing no one to kickstart my career and then a year later running a small business at the age of 24. These events have really shaped me into the person I am today.

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  Nov 20, 2012 11:30 AM GMT

  I've been into many challanges and I started as a poor boy without a father. During the 90's, I had a terrible experience dealing with bullying in the class and homophobias from many people. As I mature enough, I was convinced to pursue my dream to become a nurse primarily because it can help me to work in any country that I want to and earn a better living and to help my family. As I became a nurse, I have the chance to access different life stories. However, working abroad, I was surprised how people are afraid to be gays because of the context of their culture. I learned from discreet gays that no one would make serious of you in here and they are just after your body after you have given all your soul because they are afraid people would know. There were also isolated cases that gays are being dumped in the middle of the desert until die being unknown. Racism is also rampant especially of how they treat western and fellow middle eastern as if they are Gods and Godesses and when they think of Filipino men, they are always categorize as lady boys. A morrocan male patient told me why there are lady boys in the Philippines and I told him, if gays are accepted in the middle east continent, you would be surprised there is almost equal but you are decieved of the way they move thinking that they are male but not at all. To summarize, after all the experiences I've encountered so far, the challange is how can I find a true person who would truly love me against the odds. A person who can see the beauty in life and not about the beauty of the physical body and a thoughtful person who always think the safety of his lover and not always on his own and is definite about his feeling of love and not about lust.

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  Nov 20, 2012 12:15 PM GMT

  Great thread! I'm encouraged by others' responses.
  
  Overcoming depression, reconciling my faith and sexuality and surviving suicide attempts—I learned to love God all the more and to enjoy a depth of spirituality that I don't think I would have experienced without having had the struggles. (My profile sorta summarizes this.)

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