“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near, “You are wasting your strength with building here; your journey will end with ending day. You never again will pass this way. You’ve crossed chasm, deep and wide, why build a bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head; “Good friend in path I have come,” he said, “there followed after me today a youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm that has been as naught to me,to that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in twilight dim. Good friend I am building this bridge for him!”

- Anonymous

During early years of WW II, German U-boat blockade devastated Great Britain in an attempt to starve this island empire into submission. Nazi submarines, operating in wolfpacks, roamed North Atlantic attacking and destroying convoys unmercifully. They sank an alarming number of military and merchant ships, denying Britain desperately needed provisions. The British Royal Navy, concerned with tremendous losses of ships along with their crews, commissioned a study to determine what might be done to reduce number of casualties during sea rescue. During post rescue interviews, an interesting discovery was made. Remarkably, survival rate among young, presumably more physically fit sailors was much lower than among their older shipmates. The interviews revealed that older, more experienced sailors had survived primarily due to having overcome prior adversities in their lives. These experienced sailors had developed courage and confidence in face of tragedy. The head of research project, Kurt Hahn, was so moved by this discovery that he developed “Outward Bound” program, to train young sailors. Through a series of progressively rugged challenges Outward Bound helped young recruits develop internal fortitude necessary to survive harsh physical challenges. The next time you are faced with adversity, learn from it and know that you are becoming a stronger person because of it!