The phrase “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is misleading af.
Your trauma doesn’t get the credit for making you stronger.
You were the one who made the decision to recover and put the work in to get there. You were the one who rose from your own ashes. You were the one who put yourself back together again like smashed pottery repaired with veins of gold. You are the flowers that sprouted through the cracks in the tarmac. You stuck around and you fought and you learned and you grew.
The thing that nearly killed you shouldn’t get the credit for making you stronger - you did that.
I feel similarly about my skills being called ‘a gift’ or being told 'things happen for a reason’. Don’t remove my agency from things. I’m not a good painter because something deemed it should be so - I practiced painting. X thing did not happen so that that Y-trait could develop - I made choices to learn and grow despite X.
(via propheticfire)
