Adaptability Case Study

Have you ever found yourself in a difficult situation and not really known what to do? Did the experience seem slightly awkward, or make you feel uneasy? If so, that's just fine, because it's completely normal. Every day things happen that you may or may not be prepared for, some things you just have to take for what they are and then push through, even if it's difficult. Throughout my life, there have been some major experiences of this difficult kind that have jarred my life out of whack and made me believe my life was being turned upside down. I've been steered down a path of unexpected experiences which have abruptly challenged me, forcing me to adapt and overcome. By going through past causes, I'll discuss what I believe to be one of my best strengths: a quality of adaptability. Overall, three main causes have helped make me the person that I am today.

Looking back at what first helped lead me to be more adaptive, the earliest major thing that comes to mind is the divorce of my parents. These days there are many young adults and children who have been through this same sort of experience, and may know what it's like. Divorce can be a radical change that has the ability to make a child confused and unhappy. Personally, my parent's divorce made me a little sad, kind of angry, somewhat disoriented, and just plain unsure of what would happen next. This new lifestyle of having only one parent to turn to on a daily basis was something new and different; however, I believe my feelings were more easily overcome because I was fairly young, only five years old. I was able to come to grips with the fact that Daddy wasn't going to be around anymore. I adapted to the new things going on in my life and decided to make the best of it, focus on the good things and push away the unhappy uncertainties.

Later on, when I was ten years old, my mother remarried. With her new marriage came the life-altering and surprising news of "Oh, by the way, we're moving to Wisconsin." This wouldn't have been so bad if we had lived in a neighboring state of the Dairyland, but a move from California to Wisconsin was a whole different matter. It was a large, unexpected change that moved my "new family" from a big city in Cali to a rural podunk town in back woods Wisconsin. There was even a minor amount of culture shock: why were people talking with such a funny accent, why was there so much snow in winter if there weren't even any mountains nearby, and what in the world was a "bubbler"? Being the new kid isn't all that fun at a young age, but this new environment also provided many new and wonderful experiences for me to appreciate. Overcoming these hurdles of new Wisconsin culture became interesting and fun. I was able to build new friendships, make the best of situations, lose my "California accent" (eventually), and ultimately... end up calling