Tag: perseverance

Introducing Hello, Adversity

On By Chris AnselmoIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Hi everyone!

It has been far too long since my last post and I apologize for that! But at least this time I have a good excuse. I have been hard at work on a new writing project which I am excited to share today, called Hello, Adversity.

Hello, Adversity is a Substack newsletter about how to build resilience in a difficult world and also explores the role adversity plays in society. A lot of the source material is drawn from my personal rare disease journey. Hello, Adversity is going to be more about sharing different resilience strategies than my personal story per se. That is why I am going to keep Sidewalks and Stairwells, so that I can continue to have a space to share life updates and talk about my personal journey.

Hello, Adversity is something I have wanted to create for a long time. I really hunkered down over winter vacation to get it up and running. My motivation is to create the resource I wish I had found in my lowest moments when my world came crashing down.

It is free to subscribe. When you click on the link, it will ask for your email address. If you choose to sign up, future posts will show up in your inbox every other Wednesday. I will also be sending out a weekly Saturday roundup email of interesting resilience-themed links and news stories.

I’d love to know what you think of the new site, and if anyone else might benefit from it, please feel free to forward it along!

The link once again is HelloAdversity.substack.com.

The Storm

On By Chris AnselmoIn Uncategorized14 Comments

When I took a break from my blog back in February to focus on my book, I said that I would still write a post from time to time. But I didn’t mean for it to take four months!

Well, I’m back. I hope you are all doing well and find yourselves returning to pre-COVID activities. This world is in desperate need of more in-person connections and conversations. Social media is its own form of isolation and is not an accurate representation of the real world. There’s nothing quite like talking to someone in-person and pretending to listen.

I am just completing a two-week vacation. It was a staycation, but relaxing nonetheless. I live five minutes from the ocean, and there is nothing as relaxing as seeing the waves rolling onto the beach and feeling the warm breeze off the water.

Continue reading “The Storm” →

Captain Tom, and How Age is Just a Number

On By Chris AnselmoIn Through My EyesLeave a comment

On February 2, the world lost one of the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic: Captain Sir Tom Moore. You might remember him from the early days of lockdown, when he made news for walking 100 laps in his back garden to raise money for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

When he began his endeavor, his goal was to raise £1,000 by his 100th birthday on April 30. Instead, he raised nearly £40 million.

Watching Captain Tom confidently grip his walker and amble around his garden was one of those hopeful, optimistic sights we clung to during those early weeks of the pandemic. It was such a simple story – an elderly man, a garden and a daily walk – but one that struck a chord in us all.

Continue reading “Captain Tom, and How Age is Just a Number” →

Quarantine Reflections

On By Chris AnselmoIn The Adversity Playbook, Through My Eyes, Uncategorized6 Comments

When I lived in Boston, it became a running joke that I was an accidental trend-setter. Every neighborhood I either lived or worked in became popular as soon as I left.

In 2008, I lived in an absolute dump of an apartment on Boylston Street, right behind Fenway Park. (It sounds cool on paper but trust me, it was a dump.) A year later, I moved out, and almost overnight, luxury apartments and restaurants popped up out of thin air.

In 2010, I was working for Thomson Reuters in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood. At the time, the building complex I worked in, a cluster of 100+ year-old brick buildings, was surrounded by lifeless parking lots. There were only two or three bars nearby. I left to go to another job, and once again, a new neighborhod pops up out of thin air, and is now one of the busiest places in the city.

Same thing with Oak Square, Brighton and Central Square, Cambridge.

Why am I telling you this?

Continue reading “Quarantine Reflections” →

Pete’s Legacy

On By Chris AnselmoIn Through My Eyes1 Comment

The notification that I had been dreading for five years popped up on my phone Monday afternoon.

Pete Frates, ALS advocate who helped turn the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge into a worldwide phenomenon, had passed away.

This news did not come as a surprise. But regardless of whether or not it was expected, the news pierced my soul. It hurt. I felt like I had lost a good friend, even though I never met him.

I had followed Pete’s story ever since I first learned about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in the summer of 2014. Even as his physical condition deteriorated over the years, his spirit remained defiant. His perseverance through hardship was the example I needed during an incredibly difficult time in my life.

Continue reading “Pete’s Legacy” →

Boston

On By Chris AnselmoIn The Reluctant Traveler2 Comments

As I write this, I am back home in comfortable, quiet Connecticut. But my mind is elsewhere.

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in Boston, my adopted home for 12 of my 32 years. To say that I was excited to visit the city for an extended period of time is an understatement. I was thrilled.

My years in Boston, from 2004-2016, were the most eventful years of my life. They formed me into who I am today.

Boston was where I went to college, worked for six years, and got my MBA.

It was where I first noticed symptoms of the muscle disease that would take over my life.

It was where I made lifelong friends and lost a dear friend.

It was where I fell many, many times.

It was where I questioned my very existence and the point of this frustrating, maddening hand I was dealt.

Most important, it was where I learned to pick up the pieces of my life and start over again.

Boston is where I grew up.

Continue reading “Boston” →

The 2019 Ralph and Theresa Anselmo Resilience Award

On By Chris AnselmoIn Through My Eyes2 Comments

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much to everyone who donated last year to the first-ever Ralph and Theresa Anselmo Resilience Award. The response was overwhelming! I had hoped to fund one award and raised enough to fund two. I am so grateful for everyone’s support. It means so much to my family and I.

If you would like to learn more about last year’s recipients, Hannah and Katherine, Northeastern did a great job sharing their stories:

https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/12/10/heres-what-one-northeastern-graduate-is-doing-to-help-students-handle-their-medical-expenses/
I am happy to announce that the award is coming back for Year 2! Here is a link to the GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/2019-anselmo-family-award

This year my goal is to fund two $1,000 awards for students registered with the Northeastern University Disability Resource Center. Any amount of support would be greatly appreciated, even if it’s just sharing the GoFundMe link.

I ended up raising over $2,800 last year, and the remaining $800 will be allocated towards this year’s awards. If I raise more than my goal, I will allocate it towards next year. Either way, your donation will be put to good use!

With your support, we have already been able to positively impact the lives of two students. I hope to make this an annual award that can help students for years to come!

For those learning about the award for the first time, here is the description:

The Ralph and Theresa Anselmo Resilience Award is an award that I have created at Northeastern University (my alma mater) in honor of my parents, Ralph and Terry.

The goal of this annual award is to provide monetary assistance to a student (or students) registered with Northeastern’s Disability Resource Center  (DRC). Although when I attended Northeastern I did not experience any of the symptoms of the muscle disease that I am living with today, it is a resource I would have used had the timing been different. I have met a handful of students registered with the DRC over the years, and they are some of the kindest, most driven students I have ever met.

As someone living with a progressive disability, I have benefitted from the support of others who have enabled me to achieve my goals and dreams, which included going back to school full-time to get my MBA. Many people have helped me along this journey, none more so than my parents.

My mom and dad have been instrumental in empowering me to succeed, even as my physical condition has deteriorated. They provide me assistance and support without ever asking for anything in return. My resilience today in facing my disease would not be possible without their help.

In the spirit of the example set by my parents, I want to help others achieve their goals and dreams. Specifically, I want to help Northeastern students registered with the DRC. The intent of the award is to provide a little more peace of mind to the recipient, whether it’s helping to purchase a piece of adaptive equipment they may need for the classroom, or putting the award towards books or room and board. How they decide to use the funds is at their discretion.

I am a firm believer that anyone of any ability level can do anything they set their mind to. However, we are only as successful, we are only as strong, as our support system around us.

Without my parents, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It is an honor to name this award after them!

Award Parameters:

It is a one-time award of $1,000 each for two students. Any funds raised above and beyond the goal will go towards future awards. I will keep everyone up to date on how the funds are allocated.

Eligibility:

–          Any Northeastern sophomore, middler or junior year student with a GPA above 2.0.

–          Must be registered with the Disability Resource Center.

–          Student must provide a statement of what they plan to do with the award and why it will help them on their college journey.

How the funds can be used:

–          The award can be used on anything school-related, such as: tuition, an assistive technology device, books or room and board.

I will follow up once the award has been announced. Thank you in advance to everyone for your support!

 

 

The Next Chapter

On By Chris AnselmoIn Through My Eyes20 Comments

When I started business school in 2014, I knew that upon graduation I wanted to work either for a nonprofit organization whose mission is to find a cure for muscular dystrophy or for a pharmaceutical company developing a drug that could one day help my condition. I wasn’t as worried about what function I’d perform, so long as I bought into the organization’s mission and I felt I was making a meaningful contribution. I’ve always believed that it’s better to have the wrong role at the right organization than vice versa.

It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I am happy to announce that, two-and-a-half years after graduating from Boston College with my MBA, I have found the job that I was looking for. The job that made all those nights studying for exams, all those presentations and networking events and job interviews, worth it. On August 1st, I started full-time at the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) as a Market Intelligence Manager.

Continue reading “The Next Chapter” →

Op-Ed in the Hartford Courant

On By Chris AnselmoIn Daily Musings8 Comments

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a great Sunday.

I wanted to quickly share an opinion piece I wrote for my hometown paper, the Hartford Courant:

http://www.courant.com/opinion/insight/hc-op-insight-anselmo-getting-up-afer-dark-times-20180710-story.html

I wrote the piece on a whim, after learning about the suicide of Anthony Bourdain, who I was a big fan of and got the chance to meet back in 2012. There is a lot of despair in the world today and I felt – I hoped – that by sharing my story, I could show others that what helped me through my struggles was not some innate desire or ability, but rather a skill that everyone has – empathy. It’s a skill worth fighting for, even in this broken world.

I hope you like it!

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10,000 Hours

On By Chris AnselmoIn Through My Eyes2 Comments

This is a continuation of my post from earlier in the week, which you can find here.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s famous book, Outliers, he talks about several factors that set high-achievers apart from the rest of the population. One of the main takeaways of the book is something called the “10,000 Hour Rule” – basically, anyone who has ever become an expert at anything has needed to immerse themselves in a task for at least 10,000 hours. This holds whether you’re the Beatles practicing to become the greatest band of all time, or Bill Gates learning to program a computer.

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An interesting read.

Although the premise has been the subject of intense debate, what is beyond argument is that the more you practice or experience something, the more of an expert you become. It’s rather straightforward.

Assuming the 10,000 hour rule is mostly true, I boldly assert that I am an expert at being a patient with muscular dystrophy. It’s an odd thing to say, but ever since it took over my life ten years ago, it’s always been on my mind. It has changed me physically, emotionally and spiritually. Many of my experiences cannot be adequately explained to the general population, no matter how much someone wants to understand.

Continue reading “10,000 Hours” →