I thought it might be a bit of a change of pace for people to talk about some serious, hard questions. For me, I find it therapeutic to get stuff out into the open and even talk about things with people I don't know very well - I am a pretty open person, and embrace the entirety of somebody when I meet them - the good and the bad.

I see this as a serious place, so if you are going to be a dick and muck around, please don't bother replying.

Having said that, what is the biggest thing you have had to overcome in your life?

For me, it would have to be the miscarriage of my first child.
Happened back in 2011 - my wife and I had just begun to tell our family and friends when it happened. For me, as somebody who had not really had any tragedies happen to me in my life, it was earth shattering, a real test to my faith.
It is the kind of thing that people don't talk about, a taboo subject. But often the hard topics are the ones that need to be talked about the most - the ones that people need support through.

So, that's me. Anybody else want to jump in?

At the time it happened, I probably considered my parents' divorce to have been the hardest thing I ever dealt with. I was thirteen. Looking back on it, it was for the best. I had the kind of parents who argued almost 24/7, and that's not something kids should have to see. However, that was normal for me, and so by them splitting up it, was sort of ruining that normalcy for me. But again, I know now that it was for the best. They're better parents apart than they are married.

Now that I'm older, I say it was my great-grandma's passing back in March. Aside from my parents, my great-grandparents are who I'm closest to. So yeah, naturally when anyone close to you dies, it's gonna hurt a lot. And it did. I'm definitely not the wreck over it that I once was, but now looking at certain pictures or remembering certain things will make me sad. I also kinda delved into, "Well damn, now she's not gonna see me graduate college or get married or have kids", and that blows. And like Hayden said, it tested my faith.

Shit. Well umm this one is hard for me to talk about because I've had problems with it in the past, but uhh. I was supposed to have another brother to my family, and oh me and my other brothers were excited. We always just imagined how good it would be to have another person, to have fun with and shit. But then came the sad news that my mom had miscarried. It devastated me really, even though I didn't show it. Hell I'll be honest I wasn't even sad that day it was said. It wasn't until two years ago that it really had hit me that I've lost a family member that I really never got to know, and will never know.

That was when I was like ten or something, but since then I've not had trouble really. Currently I would have to say it's really becoming a challenge for me to transition to college. I have to juggle responsibility here, and well here to an extent. So I've felt bummed that I haven't been promoing to the extent I used to, and adjusting to this new setting is something that I've been having problems with.

I had never thought about the impact of that on a sibling. I can relate to your situation as a parent but you have given me an entire new perspective on it - later in life, how will it affect the daughter I do now have.

Thank you guys for your openness and honesty.

Aren Mstislav wrote:

Currently I would have to say it's really becoming a challenge for me to transition to college. I have to juggle responsibility here, and well here to an extent. So I've felt bummed that I haven't been promoing to the extent I used to, and adjusting to this new setting is something that I've been having problems with.

I struggled and some days still do struggle with this. The transition from high school to university was rough because my high school was such a tight community whereas at university nobody gives a fuck about you or your story. Had heaps of friends at high school, and now barely any at uni, it sucks but whatever. It took me a good 18 months, so my first year and a half of uni to settle and wise up. Been good since then though.

My biggest struggle was just growing up without a proper father figure and male role model. Dad had a stroke in 2002 and has been nothing but trouble for us since. Doesn't live with us now and is in an aged care home about 20 mins away, we only see him for occasions. Before that, he worked for customs at the airport so did shifts and I'd barely see him for those first 7 years and while the time we spent together was often okay, we just never had your typical, rosy father-son relationship and did cool father-son activities. I don't consider myself less of a man because of it, if anything it made me a better person because of it. But yeah, sometimes I wish my childhood was normal and not sheltered and disturbed like it was.

As is known my mother was murdered on mothers day of 2007. In this time and as I got older a lot of things began to happen to me mentally due to this. People struggle with depression every day, and they do it in different ways. I can remember mine, and I remember how absolutely heart wrenching it was. 

I didn't seek anyone's help with it in the slightest. I instead chose to focus myself inward, neglecting others around me. I grew a very violent temper and was lashing out at everyone and anyone around me. I lost friends, I started doing poorly in school, and I at one point attempted suicide. The experience has scared me from ever trying it again.

Too be honest it wasn't until I met Lexi that I really began to change myself. I hated everything and everyone and most of all I hated myself. I hated the way I was, the fact that I breathed, that I was alive. I didn't have anything to help me push through this. She saw me as someone else, someone that needed her and that she needed. I can't help but be thankful that she exists in my life. I really would never wish that experience on anyone, and I'm thankful to you guys as well. You help remind me that I don't have to hate my very existence and that I'm part of a large dysfunctional insane family. I love you all.

I was molested by my babysitter at 8 years old (I kind of liked it, though)

When I was seven years old my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I didn't have a real dad or grandparents that were living so the uncertainty was probably the hardest thing I had to go through. Luckily I still have her.

That being said, things got really hard recently. A few people already know about this, but about two weeks or so after I joined EAW I found out my mom was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. 15 years later and Cancer reared it's ugly head again. I am, however, proud to announce that the treatment she's been receiving has been working great, and she's got a couple more chemo treatments to go before she's done. It looks like my mom kicked cancer's ass twice, knock on wood.

When I was about 4 or so, I went into get a physical to go into early kindergarten and they found something when checking my eyes.  What they found were 3 benign brain tumors resting on my optic nerve.  So I more or less went into surgery immediately while my mom lamented (still does) thinking I was being lazy when I frequently said 'I'm tired' or 'I have a headache' all of the time.  In the surgery, they got 2 of the 3 out of me.  The 3rd remained on my optic nerve in fear that I'd go blind or worse if it were tampered with, which resulted in a myriad of other health problems that I wont go into.  I still spent the next 10 years or so vomiting my brains out and going through fairly traumatic and painful procedures just to kill my headaches while doctors tried to find the right cocktail of pills to keep me healthy.  I was about as skinny as a holocaust victim up until the age of 13 or so when they finally found the right pill to kill the perpetual decade long vomit inducing migraine.  I've been kind of mellow since, but to me, that was half of my life so far, a half that I shouldn't be worried about my health or thinking about my mortality, that's finally kind of over.

And that's not even the challenging part for me, really.  I mean, yeah, it sucked living off ice and saltines, but the real battle's after.  Now I'm left with sort of a war beaten 'now what?' feeling.  I feel like I've overcame (hopefully) the toughest period of my life, and I come out the other side feeling kind of jaded and lost without any real direction as to where to go now.  It's almost like adulthood's this anticlimactic thing I've been fighting to have, only to get there with meat on my bones and a bit of appreciation and wisdom on my side only to realize that I really don't know what to do now that I'm closing in on the finish line of a life long struggle.  It's an underwhelming, frightening feeling of 'what's next? and do I really have anything left in me?' I've still got a lot of obstacles to overcome with my vision and my overall health stasis that are in the way of so many things I want to do.  In a way, I think for the past 5 years I've just kind of 'checked out' and started to enjoy life a bit more.  I've been to places I've never thought I'd go, I've eaten foods I'd never thought I'd taste, I've gone to concerts, wrestling shows, and combinations of the two, I've fallen in and out of love, I've sought higher education.  My life's had flavor, no question, but I don't know.  Maybe it's in hopes of finding something worth fighting for again.  Until I find that, I'm just kind of floating and empty, and that's scarier than anything to me.

My hardest hurdle in my life would definitely be when my dad walked out on my mom along with me and my sister. My parents were having a lot of problems, I didn't know it at the time, because I was young, but one day my dad left and never came back. My parents had me at a young age, they were 16, and they had my sister at 18 my mom said he wasn't mature enough to raise kids, weather he would admit it or not, which still isn't an excuse to walk out on your wife and kids. About a year after he walked out, he sent my sister and myself a letter, stating that he loves us and that him walking out had nothing to do with us and that we were the best things in his life blah blah blah, I don't really care what the excuse is I don't care what he has to say, I hate him and I always will hate him, not because of what he did to me, but what he did to my mom. My mom said she was abused by him physically and emotionally, and the fact that he left a woman, his wife with 2 kids at the age 24 is a cowardly thing to do. Luckily my mom didn't let that get her down, she has a well paying job and is able to support us, and she did a great job taking care of us all these years. And I love her so much, she is without a doubt my role model. My dad walking out made me learn about loyalty, and what family really means. I have cleared this hurdle, but for a while I was sad and embarrassed, I however realized that there is nothing to be sad or embarrassed about, and feeling sorry for myself will get me no where in life.

Mr. DEDEDE wrote:

I was molested by my babysitter at 8 years old (I kind of liked it, though)

This ain't a place for jokes, moron.

This is great guys, I love the honesty here. It reminds me that there is no such thing as a 'normal' person or a 'normal' life. You guys, being able to get past all of these things in your lives is a real inspiration for me.

Well here we goo...October 2011, my aunt passed away from breast cancer. My Aunt Maryann was such a funny, loving person and was like a second mother to me. My mom's side of the family is super close and we always hang out with each other almost every weekend. My Aunt Maryann was the wacky person in the family that was super funny and we just loved no matter what mood you were in. Ever since then, it's just has never been the same again. She was truly once in a lifetime person.

My hardest hurdle, without a shadow of a doubt, was trying to establish a strong connection with my mother. Just like all of you in EAW, I strongly adore my mother and love her affectionately. She became the producer of my life, helped raised me, my brother and my sister up through tough and tragic periods, and she always wanted the best out of the family.

However, even though I am not a doctor or physician, I can strongly say that my mother may have some bi-polar condition. When I was a child, one second, my mother and I would have a pleasant conversation, have a few giggles here and there and just have a relaxing time. But however, if I make the SLIGHTEST mistake at home, whether it was dropping something off the bookshelf and leaving the faucet running in the house, she would immediately start insulting me and go on long rants about how I should grow up and be a "man of myself" and be like my other cousins, nephews and nieces just like me. I was just about 11 years old at that time.

That outburst would later become an ongoing chain for me, even right now as I speak. Whenever I visit her at home, if I just grab a remote control and just accidentally drop it, the tirade immediately begins, and I start to get agitated and deeply bothered because it isn't absolutely serious to cry and moan over a remote control. Once in a while as well, she would start to randomly cry whenever I am sleeping because of her mother passing (her mother died in Germany; never got to see her). She would cry and cry each day to the fact that I would just storm out of the house in total rage. I mean, I will eventually face the harsh reality of losing my parents one day, but I think it's a bit far that she decides to cry each and every day and not even prepare my father, brother and my sister, for example, breakfast or just go out for some family time. Since then, I have alienated myself with my mother.

Now, 2015, I decided to look up upon myself to rectify all the cursed wounds between me and my mother. My mother is not getting any younger, and I must make it my duty to have as many wondrous and exciting memories to remember her by in her life before the time does come for it to all close shut. It may be a struggle, but better to try than to never do.