10 EXAMPLES OF RESILIENCE (PERSONAL STORIES) - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

Here are 10 examples of resilience of people who have managed to overcome their problems and learn from them thanks to this ability. They will encourage anyone to overcome the obstacles they have in their life and to be stronger emotionally.

Resilience has been characterized in recent years by receiving great interest from society and little by little it is becoming a very popular term today. Surely we have all had some moment in our life that has been hard and in which we have had to be resilient.

Resilience can be understood as the process of coping with heartbreaking, stressful or challenging life events in a way that provides the individual with additional protection and coping skills than they had prior to the breakup that resulted from the event.

From this definition we can extract that even though the person is involved in a complicated situation, he is capable of getting something positive out of the tragedy experienced.

Examples of resilient people

Here are 10 examples of people who have more than proven resilient due to illnesses they have overcome or situations they have gone through in their life.

1. Malala Yousafzai

Malala is a girl of Pakistani origin known to be a great advocate for female education, as well as women's rights. When she was only 12 years old, she began to blog how she went to class in a clandestine way and to claim that she had the right to receive an education.

This fact and the ideals for which she fights was what led her to want to be killed by the terrorist group TTP in 2012. At the time of what happened, Malala was on a school bus traveling through the Swat Valley in Pakistan, when two members of the TTP shot her with a rifle, hitting her in the skull and neck.

Later, she had to undergo several reconstructive surgeries, due to the large injuries she suffered, and they even had to incorporate a titanium plate in her skull and a hearing device in her left ear.

Months after her attempted murder, she was released from the hospital and continued with rehab.

His assassination attempt did not stop Malala and she continued to train and fight for women's rights to education. In 2013, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as the youngest woman in history, since at that time, she was only 16 years old. That same year, she was also awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

In 2014 he also received the Manuel Broseta Coexistence Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize. Today she continues to fight for the rights of children and for equal education for men and women.

2. Adriana Macías

Despite the fact that her parents always insisted that she use prostheses, Adriana never knew how to adapt to them. Doctors always told him that it was impossible for him to lead a normal and autonomous life just by handling his feet.

When he reached adolescence everything turned black because he lived in a world where everyone had arms. At that age many negative thoughts came to his head, such as that he could not marry because no one was going to ask for his hand. However, she learned to make fun of herself and with the great support of her parents became an independent and autonomous woman.

On the other hand, he studied law, public speaking and writing. Since she was 18 years old, she has been traveling the world giving lectures and talks on motivation and improvement. In addition, he has written two books and based on practice he is already able almost completely to turn his big toes to write, put on makeup, grab things…

Although life has not been a rosy color for her, she is completely happy because she has fulfilled one of her dreams, to be a mother and have a family and that has not been any disability that takes it away.

3. Stephen Hawking

Due to a degenerative disease that he has suffered from for over thirty years, Hawking is paralyzed from head to toe, causing him to be in a wheelchair. On the other hand, due to a tracheostomy that damaged his vocal cords, he is unable to communicate through his voice.

This makes him a totally dependent person in his day to day. However, this has not prevented her from studying physics or even getting a doctorate despite the fact that the doctors only gave her three months to live for her illness.

With these impediments, he has written with the help of the fingers of one hand, that they are only the only ones he can move in his entire body, several books and today he is one of the most recognized scientists.

He currently travels the world giving lectures, is a teacher and is married. It communicates through a word processor that is built into your wheelchair. Instead of living like a victim and feeling sorry for himself, he struggled to be positive despite the circumstances and to fulfill his dreams.

4. Nuria del Saz

She studied Information Sciences and is also a writer. When she was only 14 years old, she started in the media at a station that she had created herself. Before finishing her studies, she was already working for Canal Sur TV, a task that she also combined with social gatherings, among other activities.

She has received awards such as one of the "Clara Campoamor" awards in 2005 or "Young Journalism in 2006. Also in 2012 she was awarded by the El Saliente de Almería Association of People with Disabilities.

He has written several poetry books, one in 2006 with the title Alma Atrapada, the second in 2011 "Intimate Paradise" and in 2013 he presented a book with a narrative style, A ciegas en Manhattan.

Currently, he continues to work to show that visual impairment is not decisive in a person's life and that everyone can accomplish everything that is proposed in life.

5. Pablo Pineda

Pablo has been recognized for being the first European with Down Syndrome to finish a university degree, specifically teaching. Currently, the career of psychopedagogy is finished, an activity that he carries out together with other activities such as: presentation and acting, writing as well as motivational conferences.

Getting to get a university degree has not been easy for him, since he had to fight very hard to achieve his compulsory studies in a public school and even to continue with high school or enter the university itself.

In 2013 he published a book “The challenge of learning”, in 2015 he published his second book “Children with special abilities: Manual for parents”. On the other hand, due to his performance and appearance in the film “Yo, also”, in 2009 he won the Silver Shell for best actor at the San Sebastián Film Festival.

Currently, he is dedicated to giving conferences with the sole objective of eliminating the prejudices that exist in society towards people who have a disability and thus also increasing respect for them. In addition, she also works at the Adecco Foundation giving talks and carrying out tasks for the same purpose.

He is characterized by being a positive and fighter person without complexes and proud of being Down Syndrome.

6. Albert Espinosa

At only 13 years old, he had to face an osteosarcoma that caused him to lose a leg, giving him only months to live at that time. Later, at the age of 16, they had to remove a lung and part of a liver at the age of 18.

He has spent 10 years of his life in a hospital, which has led him to be a great source of inspiration for his works in general. He lives like he's going to die tomorrow and doesn't make plans for more than a month.

Currently he continues to work as a screenwriter and film director as well as giving lectures and is even studying medicine, his main motivational phrase: "What is sad is not living intensely."

7. Alison Lapper

From a very young age, doctors have tried to make her wear artificial arms and legs without success, since they did not make her feel well and she was not comfortable. She does not know her older sister and spent most of her childhood in a center for people with physical disabilities.

Her adolescence was very hard as she wanted to be like others, but little by little she began to understand that she was different. At the age of 19 she graduated in Fine Arts to later become a renowned painter, a hobby that she practiced since she was three years old only with the help of her head and her mouth.

She has been awarded by the Member of the British Empire (MBE) that the queen herself gave her. Throughout her life she has always been rejected and even her partner abandoned her while she was pregnant. However, she currently considers herself a happy woman with a desire to fight to achieve her goals.

8. Piermario Morosini

His life, although marked by tragedy, did not prevent him from being a great soccer player and enjoying a fighting spirit and unequaled liveliness. His brother took his own life by losing his mother and father, leaving him alone in the care of his disabled sister.

He was characterized by being a very happy person despite everything he had experienced. He died in 2012 collapsed on the grass while playing despite attempts to revive him. So that his sister would not be left alone, his friend, Antonio Di Natale decided to take care of his sister.

9. Enhamed

She wanted to be independent and that's how she discovered swimming. It began as a hobby to such an extent that they became hours of training, thanks to the swimming pool, she got the strength to face her blindness and go out.

He has won four Olympic golds at the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008, four golds and one silver at the World Championships in Eindhoven in 2010, five medals at the Berlin European Championships in 2011 and three medals at the Paralympic games and the list is endless..

He gives lectures on self-improvement and personal motivation and even wrote a book. Currently, she continues to face new challenges and make sure that her blindness does not condition her day to day.

10. Mark Inglis

Due to the storm Mark, he was trapped in a place that was difficult for rescuers to access, so he almost died. As a result of the 14 days that he was trapped, his feet turned into frozen meat, for which he had to cut his legs up to above the knees.

After a while they put prostheses on him and, not knowing how to walk in them properly, he ventured up the mountain. Although he had no legs he was still a fighter, until he finally managed to climb the one that almost killed him 10 years earlier in 2002.

After this feat he has continued climbing mountains, even on one occasion one of his prostheses was damaged when he was trying to climb the Himalayas, which he reached with effort and energy.

Currently, in addition to continuing to climb peaks, he gives motivational and personal improvement talks.

These are only 10 cases of resistance worthy of being mentioned, but surely you know some other story of a famous person or close person who also put courage in life, would you tell us about it on our comment board?

References

1. Iglesias, EB (2006). Resilience: definition, characteristics and usefulness of the concept. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Psychology, 11 (3), 125-146.
2. Forés, A., & Grané, J. (2008). The resilience. Grow from adversity.