Positivity- Memoirs Week 2

Something that can be very hard for people is staying positive through everything life throws at us. However, all the memoirs that were presented this week had something in common; they all featured a central character who lived through their experiences and then prospered because of a great outlook on life. In almost all of the memoirs including: Lucky, Marley and Me, The Liars Club, A Stolen Life, Glass Castle, and Lone Survivor, the main character took their various hardships and found growth in them. Instead of wallowing in the past they decided to remember it, learn from it, grow from it and move on.
The past is a collection of little bits and pieces of who we are and when we gather them all up we get who we are today. In situations like in Lucky by Alice Sebold where a woman is raped her first year in college the past can hold you down and keep you in its grasp or you can choose,like her, to get back up and move on as a stronger person.
For me, staying positive is an ongoing struggle. It is comforting and inspiring to me to know that people who have incredible, heartbreaking and moving stories can move forward as a force to be reckoned with. Jaycee Dugard the author of A Stolen Life and Marcus Luttrell author of Lone Survivor  both took their experiences and helped others in similar situations find happiness.Both opened charities to help and support others.The ability to hunker down and move forward despite a hardship and even help others along the way is something that I like to think is in all of us.My mind immediately goes to the lesson most of us have hear our entire lives;  when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

The story of the most impact to me was The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Everything about her and her story is positive. Through everything that she had been through, homelessness,poverty and hunger she remained brave and clung to the hope of a better future. She became a poster child for what a positive outlook can do for you with hard work and a little luck. Jeanette Walls is an incredibly brave and positive person who inspired me through her hope for the future and positive demeanor.