This is Adele Anderson and she is RESILIENT.
CONTENT WARNING: The I Am Resilient Project provides an open space for people to share their personal experiences. Some content in this post and on this website will include topics that you may find difficult.
Describe the situation where you had to be resilient:
The plane I was a passenger in crashed and flipped in water.
Adele’s Story:
It was a balmy summer day and I had been out flying with a friend. As the sun began to set, we began our return to the airport. But then, my pilot indicated he was going to dip down to the river far below and we would skip the pontoons along the water and then fly back up into the sky. As the plane pummeled towards the earth, I hadn’t a care in the world. Until the pontoons hit the surface of the water.
The plane flipped from nose to tail. It was so fast; my mind registered the pilot was going under and I went to take a breath of air but my mouth filled with water. And there I was, upside down with gravity pulling me. It was pitch black, cold and wet and as the plane spun around and around in the current, I had a mouth full of water.
I scrambled to release myself, gave one hard push and I instantly knew I was trapped. My life-jacket cord seemed tangled within the 3-point harness. As I continued to try my escape, I could feel the last of my oxygen leave my limbs. That tingling sensation was familiar and I knew well from the swim team. At that moment, the thought crossed my mind, “I wonder if I am going to die?”
My life began flashing in front of my mind’s eye, millions of images from my birth through my life. And then my focus moved beyond my life into images of what could be my destiny. Local police officers walking through my parent’ yard, up the big red brick stairs and knocking on that old wooden door. They answered the door. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but I watched their facial expressions change, from curiosity to acknowledgment to horror. My mom collapsed, covering her head with her hands and she SCREAMED. The retching sound rang through my mind, snapping me back into my reality, that I was drowning in a plane that had crashed and overturned in the water.
At that instant, I made a vow. I was not doing that to them, I was getting out of the plane and getting out now! Then magic happened. All those pictures that had flashed forward, began to go in reverse. Back in time through hundreds of thousands of images, and then they stopped. Right in front of my mind’s eye, was a scene from a movie I had watched. I didn’t know the name of the movie, the actors or what the movie was about, but the scene in front of me gave me all the information I needed to escape a plane that had crashed and overturned in the water. I saw a commander training young pilots on how to escape and so I followed the script and escaped the plane. So, I’m here to tell you that even in life’s most dire circumstances, out of breath or out of time, we still have the ability to make choices. Often, we take what we are dealt because we doubt our ability, we doubt that we “can” and with those thoughts, we cheat ourselves of the life we truly deserve.
How did you practice resilience when faced with this challenge?
Stayed calm, remained positive and knew exactly what my desired outcome was
Please share one piece of advice for people who are going through a similar challenge
There are always choices that can change the circumstances of our lives. If we truly believe in ourselves, our brains will fulfill that belief.
???? Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia, Canada
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