Hang in There, Stay Strong

“I’m using it to motivate them, to give them a reason to continue on to dream again and to know that if you have a downfall, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the way.” 

— Yusra Mardini. Refugee Olympic Swimmer 

Did you know that a handful of refugees make their way onto being Olympians? Quite a few refugees can and have demonstrated high-level athletic performance, therefore getting accepted into the Refugee Olympic Team. So, what’s so important about this? Well, refugees typically go through a lot in their lives whether they’re experiencing war, famine, loss of loved ones, or resettlement struggles. It’s all a part of the effort to live a better life someplace else. The reason why I bring this up is because refugees go through a lot, and they’re still able to showcase their strength through sports, performance, and courage to train to get better and rebuild their lives. It takes a tremendous amount of grit to get over trauma the things you go through as a refugee, and even making an effort to reconstruct your whole life into something better is a great struggle. Yet, they still strive for it. They still strive for change, humanity, the ability to live a life better than the one they once knew. It’s hard to overcome such struggles, and sometimes it can weigh you down for the rest of your life. It may feel hard, but it’s important to pick yourself back up and keep trying to the very end. It’s going to be hard when you leave your country, start somewhere new, and adjust to it. You won’t know the people you knew before, you’ll be in a completely different environment, and you may feel uncomfortable with how fast everything is changing, but it’s important to hang in there. Whatever further struggles come your way, you have to face it with resilience because you're stronger than the temptation to give up. All you have to do is keep looking forward to see where you’re headed, and never look back to prevent dwelling on the past. Life may be hard, but there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. You just have to create that tunnel in order to grow. 

A wonderful example of this “overcoming your struggles” topic is Yusra Mardini. Yusra is a Syrian swimmer who fled from her country. In 2015, she ran away from the war with her fellow sisters and crossed quite a few countries in order to get to Germany. She’s renowned for her courage to escape her war-torn homeland and also for her outstanding strength. People are impressed by Yusra and hear her story about the efforts she took to evacuate to a new country. She is most notable for her story of carrying a boat with a substantial number of people while swimming alongside a few others. In Turkey, Yusra and her sister boarded an overpopulated boat in order to get to Greece and then end up in Germany. But, the overcrowded boat's engine died, leaving them stranded for a little bit. Then, Yusra, her sister, and a few other people jumped into the water, started swimming, and eventually pulled the boat all the way to Greece. Soon after, they reached Germany where Yusra continued her training as a swimmer and got inaugurated into the Refugee Olympic Team. Even after great trauma and despair in Yusra’s tragic homeland, she reached great lengths to find a new resettlement, committed to it, and benefited from it. Her story is one of great resilience and it teaches us a lesson about growing from your past, not letting it weigh you down, and actively progressing everyday.

-Scarlett Salas