The content of her character

I was feeling a bit sorry for myself today. Not because I had to work on a national holiday (it's the nature of the gig -- client needs aren't necessarily put on hold to fit the calendar). In fact, I'm not sure why I am gloomy. Seasonal affective disorder, perhaps? Anyway, a it was a blue Monday for Jackson.

Whatever. That is not the point -- the point is, while I was on hold waiting for a client, I decided to google the names of various people. (Yeah, I know. Again, whatever.) For some reason, I decided to google the name of a high school classmate. I didn't know her all that well, and, no, I did not have the hots for her. (Not that she was unattractive; it's just that there were others at the time that I lusted after instead.) I recall reading in the paper a few years ago that she was an artist, and was in the process of recovering from this horrible thing that had happened to her. She was getting back into art and had also started a charity to help children -- a very uplifting story. (I am trying to keep the details relatively vague.)

I learned today that while she was recovering from Horrible Event One, Horrible Event Two happened to her. She slowly recovered from this, too. She rebuilt herself, physically and mentally, and her current art is simply amazing. She has taken these awful events -- events that had either of them happened to me, would have been proof that The Universe hated me -- and has instead incorporated them into her life and her art.

To me, this is literally awe-inspiring. In high school, I considered her a typical princess. I probably would have thought that, having been born on third base, she would have crumbled at the first sign that Bad Things can happen. I'd like to think that I have handled the curveballs that Life has thrown at me in a reasonably good fashion. But the grace shown by my high school classmate -- in dealing with two blows that almost killed her -- is something on a far different level. I hope that I never have to find out, but I like to think that my character is capable of such grace.