Without minimizing the genuine hardships many people have endured in recent times, I would put some pressure on the conceptual link here between "living through" something and metrics of personal growth like becoming tougher or becoming more resilient.
https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1383840359705309190
That's because we use "living through" ambiguously.
Sometimes it refers to *actively participating in x* and other times it means something closer to *being alive during x.*
Sometimes it refers to *actively participating in x* and other times it means something closer to *being alive during x.*
"Living through" boot camp will make me tougher, yes.
"Living through" a depression, if my job was safe and my industry remained relatively strong throughout, won't.
"Living through" a depression, if my job was safe and my industry remained relatively strong throughout, won't.
It certainly *can* produce that effect for many who are having to hustle and scrape by, but toughness isn't some collective property that we all get in virtue of some subset of the population enduring difficulty firsthand.
Many people "lived through" the "attempted authoritarian takeover" by profligately tweeting hashtag heavy #Resistance fare. I'm not going to conclude they've become tougher via this experience.
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