Every life is filled with challenging moments and, sometimes, challenges that fill far longer stretches of time. Sadly, some people find it so very hard to climb out of what may seem like a bottomless abyss. Others of us – perhaps because of some combination of pure hardiness and the skilled and caring help provided by others – manage to triumph and draw on our ordeals to forge ahead with rich insight, even vigor. Nelson Mandela once said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” And this is exactly what we hear from 16-year-old Lauren Bendheim.
Lauren Bendheim is a student at the Lincoln School in Providence and lives with her family in Barrington.