In his novel A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway wrote “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” Of course, all of us face daunting challenges in life. As we hear from Cheryl Hatch, sometimes, sometimes, trauma indeed can strengthen us.
Cheryl Hatch is president of the Women’s Education Initiative, a nonprofit organization that offers funding for women who have the desire but not the resources to pursue their dreams of a college education.
In 2003, I had a visa for Kuwait, and I planned to cover the Iraq War. As an international journalist, I’d been covering conflict and its aftermath since 1990—in Liberia, Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea, Mozambique.
I had, in retrospect, what I’ll call an emotional breakdown. I bailed on the Iraq War and went to the Philippines to earn my scuba instructor rating.
I dodged the war, but I nearly killed myself in an ATV accident in the jungles in the Philippines. I shattered my wrist and required immediate surgery.
I believe that bad breaks often lead to good things.
I arrived alone at St. Patrick’s Hospital on Easter weekend.
“Where’s your companion?”
The nurses, doctors, everyone who entered my room asked the same question. Filipinos always stay with family in the hospital. They would never leave a loved one alone. They could not fathom my situation.
The owner of the dive shop where I’d trained sent one of the waitresses from his resort to be my companion.
During our five days in the hospital, I learned that Leah had abandoned her dreams of becoming a teacher when her father died. She quit school and left her tiny village to find work. She sent her wages home and paid for the construction of the single room cinderblock home where her family lived.
Leah was with me when I settled my hospital bill for $2,500. “How will you ever pay it, Cheryl,” she asked, with tears welling.
I learned from the doctor who treated my post-op wounds that an equivalent sum would pay for a college education. I asked Leah if she’d like to go to college. She said yes. I paid. At 31, she went back to school and earned her degree.
Leah’s story and accomplishments inspired people in her country and mine; so I created a nonprofit to continue the good work we’d all done together. To date, we’ve supported women scholars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, Malaysia, the Philippines, Costa Rica.
The idea for Women’s Education Initiative began by accident, literally. With a couple of bad breaks.
As I write this essay, I am recovering from ankle surgery. During this pandemic, I’ve been thinking about brokenness. How my mental break in 2003 led to my broken wrist in the Philippines—which eventually led to funding Leah’s education, which led to her dream career as a third-grade teacher.
Breaking requires time to heal. For me, who’s always buzzing/moving/flitting in mind and body, a break in my mind, broken bones, a shattered wrist, my shredded ankle, all have forced me at crucial moments in my life to stop, be still, ask for help. And trust that I need the time to heal and wait for the next good thing to reveal itself.
