It has not been anything out of the ordinary to hear people say, and with great frequency, “You are very strong and resilient”. From a young age I understood that I had to find a way out of every adverse situation that presented itself to me.

So, I review my past today at a mature age and different questions come to my mind: How did I do it? What tools did I use? Where has so much strength, skill or resilience come from? How have I been able to overcome the pain and achieve my dreams despite the challenges faced?

My life has been touched by loss and pain at an early age. I grew up without a father and with a mother, being the youngest daughter, was spoiled to exhaustion; but had her own challenges to face as a single mother. I was raised by my maternal grandmother-my pillar, an example to follow, and my stability. However, she died when I was 15 years old.

As a woman with a Christian base, I recognize that God has cared for and protected me even when the full development of my conscience, maturity and independence were being formed. I understood in my youth that “I had to give my concerns to God and that he was going to deal with them.”

The pains of not growing up with the protection of a father and the death of the being that I loved the most at a vulnerable age, led me to learn to regulate myself and overcome my emotions in every circumstance.

Through pain, my brain trained itself to focus on emotions that would represent some benefit of its own. This is because I carried so much pain such as the rejection and abandonment of my father, and the insecurity that the same situation generated in me.

In my teenage years I did not understand the magnitude of my emotions. However, I never let myself be carried away by those destructive emotions or associated uncertainty, why? … Because I decided to take the opposite action to what life itself was presenting to me. I call this, “Internal Mechanisms of Survival” ( I speak in more detail in my course on vulnerability).

I learned that I should put high expectations in my life, no matter what others wanted or expected of me, apart from behaving well and following the rules of society. I understood that I only had time to get ahead!