By David Tepera, April 28, 2023

Recently, I was guest speaker for a group of people, and we were sharing life’s challenges, including how we overcame them. Once I finished, a young man sadly commented about how much tragedy and death I’d been through.

It took me back for a moment because even though I lost my two oldest sons, a father and a few close friends, all within a short period of time, I never felt sorry for myself. Yes, it was a difficult time to deal with, but through my faith and strong will, I became a stronger man from it.

Here’s my message. I know there are so many of you out there that have dealt with heartache and devastation worse than me. I never thought “woe-is-me” because I know people who’ve been through worse times.

As life moves forward, we will see the joys of marriages, birth of babies, plus all the happiness from a variety of celebrations.

But, at the same moments, we will attend more funerals, hear of devastating diagnosis and other tragedies life throws at us.

We must all accept this is the part of life that molds us. It’s easy to enjoy the goodness we experience, but when you get suckered punched, surviving will make you stronger.

To me, death is the most difficult to deal with. There’s not one of us who can escape its wrath. As much as you might want to crawl up in the fetal position, you must learn to celebrate the memories that person gave you.

Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with a challenging disease. Notice, I chose to name it as “challenging.” What some people might think is defined as terminal, you must change your stinking thinking and be ready to put up a fight.

Sometimes in life, we get pushed into a corner and the only way out is to fall to our knees or start punching and kicking our way out.

Just like I used to tell my athletes when they got blind-sided, “GET UP and get back in the game.” It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, it’s how many times you get up.

Now, today is when you decide to turn things around. There’s no more feeling sorry for yourself because you are no longer a victim. Pick yourself up, get your game face on, and start kicking some butt.

You are going to show others, that no matter what happens, surviving makes you stronger.