Iraq War Veteran Tammy Duckworth, the Comeback Artist
congressional Candidate Tammy Duckworth triumphed over adversity after losing both of her legs when her helicopter was shot down near Baghdad:
Sometimes a setback is an inconvenience. Sometimes it’s a major disruption. Sometimes it’s even bigger than that. Severe hardships can be the toughest tests we face in life, capable of neutralizing ambition and wrecking years of careful planning. People who overcome traumatic adversities often do it by applying habits learned through lesser setbacks. In the same way that small triumphs can help build incremental layers of confidence and toughness, overcoming major hardships can generate newfound capabilities that may not emerge any other way.
One day toward the end of 2004, 36-year-old Tammy Duckworth awoke in a hospital room, wondering where she was and what had happened. As consciousness came and went, she heard doctors and nurses talking about a helicopter crash. It came back to her in fragmented, terrifying snapshots. Iraq. Heat. Sky. Dust. A deafening flash. Screeching machinery. Blood. Fear. Something terrible had happened, and she had been in the middle of it. For days, in the hospital, she felt an overwhelming sense of dread as she grasped at comprehension. But over the following months, Duckworth would transform shock, horror, pain, and a crippling new disability into an intensified sense of purpose. Modest goals grew into more ambitious ones. Her pace of accomplishment accelerated. Barriers to advancement that had once seemed imposing no longer got in the way. Above all, Duckworth developed the confidence to try bold and difficult things because the risk of failing no longer intimidated her.