“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” ——Viktor E. Frankl ，Man’s Search for Meaning
For a long time, I told myself that surviving was enough. I made myself small, looked only one step ahead, and called it coping. But somewhere along the way I realized I hadn’t really moved — I’d just been running from something, not toward anything.
Frankl wrote this in a concentration camp, after losing nearly everything. What struck me wasn’t his suffering — it was how clearly he saw that the one thing no one could take from him was how he chose to respond. I had never thought of myself as someone with that kind of agency.
I’m still climbing out. Some days I slip back a little. But I’ve started asking a different question — not “can I get through this,” but “who do I want to be on the other side.” That small shift made me feel like the author of my own story again.