Don’t just make it work | Vanessa Mora Orihuela | TEDxInstitutoMéxicodeBC

Quick Overview

The speaker, Vanessa Mora Orihuela, concludes that resilience is not merely the ability to push through pain, but the capacity to find a reason to stay and actively work towards positive change, even when facing overwhelming difficulty, as exemplified by her own summer experience in Vancouver where initial pain gave way to growth through connection and perspective shifts.

Key Points: The speaker spent a summer in Vancouver, an adventure she initially dreaded due to the pain it caused. She experienced immense pain, feeling like her existence was being torn apart, which made her initial approach to avoid the pain ineffective. The turning point involved recognizing that her first thought—to simply make the pain go away—was wrong; the goal was to stay and seek change. The support from friends, classmates, and campers, as well as the opportunity to explore a new place, anchored her and provided reasons to remain. Resilience is defined not as pushing through pain, but as having the gall to recognize when pushing through is impossible and instead finding a reason to stay and create change. She realized that true resilience involves actively seeking a reason to remain and improve one's situation rather than just enduring suffering.

Context: Vanessa Mora Orihuela recounts a challenging summer experience, likely during an internship or program in Vancouver, where she was overwhelmed by intense, unexpected pain that made her want to return home. She initially sought to avoid this pain, but realizing that avoidance was futile, she shifted her focus to finding the internal motivation and external support systems necessary to stay and actively work towards resolving her difficult circumstances, framing this shift as the true definition of resilience.

Detailed Analysis

Vanessa Mora Orihuela shares a personal narrative about a difficult summer where she experienced profound pain that felt like her existence was being torn apart, leading her to contemplate leaving her situation in Vancouver. Her initial instinct was to push through the pain or seek an immediate cure, but she realized this approach was unhelpful. The turning point came when she recognized that the fight against the pain was futile. Instead, she began to focus on finding a reason to stay and enacting positive change. This shift was supported by the connections she made with friends, classmates, and campers, and the new sights she explored. She concludes that resilience is not about enduring suffering or blindly pushing through, but rather having the courage to stop trying to fix the unfixable and instead finding a compelling reason to stay and actively work toward a better reality, which ultimately empowered her to endure and grow.