I am a high school counselor. As an educator, I am a different type of “business woman.” Although people like Oprah are always saying things like, “Educators have the hardest and most important jobs in the world” it is not looked at in the same way as if I worked in the corporate world or owned my own business.

Be that as it may, there are many applicable qualities that apply to education and vice versa. Today I want to address the topic of resilience.  Resilience may be the characteristic I most admire in others, and because of the type of career I have, I see it daily in the life of at least one of the 400 students on my caseload.

Having courage and a positive attitude in the face of adversity can singlehandedly move a child from being a victim of her circumstances to a professionally and personally successful adult.  I look at students that I work with and contemplate what makes one person able to take the pain of life and use it to spur her on to become the person she wants to be versus another of similar background who uses that for the rest of her life as the reason she can’t be successful.

I just finished reading Jeannette Walls’ book “The Glass Castle,” a memoir about her incredibly painful childhood and adolescence viewed through her ever-hopeful eyes.  Her story is both inspiring and haunting. Raised by an alcoholic father and an artistic, selfish mom, the four children in this story face situations many of us cannot even imagine. Eating leftover lunches out of the cafeteria trashcan, sleeping in cardboard boxes, wearing the same three dresses in rotation, among many others.

Despite her circumstances, Walls has the incredible gift of being able to see both the good and the bad of her situation. Today, as a highly successful writer who lives a lovely life of privilege, she knows she would not be the same woman if her childhood had been more traditional. She sees her parents for their bad and their good qualities and doesn’t expect them to be different than who they are.

What can I do to help young people learn resilience? Is it even something that can be taught?  When I read the Walls book, I looked for those people who might have helped foster the resilience that ultimately led to her success. I have to say much of it seemed innate, but there were two people that helped her see beyond the now to the “what might be.” One was the English teacher who made her editor of the school newspaper and helped encourage her interest in writing. The other was the newspaper editor who hired her at 17 to work as a clerk and then encouraged her on toward higher education.

I suppose it is my nature to believe it is never too late to foster an attitude of resilience. In many ways each day we are challenged to choose a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” attitude. But when we see that attitude in our friends, family or co-workers take a moment to appreciate it, notice it, compliment it. You never know what life path may have come before.

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