It really takes just a glimpse into someone else’s life to see how inane some of your own problems are.

I just watched the movie Frida, detailing the real life of Kahlo from the first traumatic scene to the last. This poor girl had a deformed leg due to polio at age six, broke her spine, ribs, shoulders, and uterus in a trolley accident when an iron handrail pieced her right through the stomach, married a cheating Diego Rivera who slept with her own sister, and died after months of pain in bed.

All this and a true story! Some people just had it worse. Way worse.

But despite the life outside of her control, she still managed such a strong spirit, living, painting, laughing. After each hit, she bounced back, sometimes higher and stronger than before.

You can almost feel her resilience through the movie. It’s so strong that nothing could break her.

Then I thought, wow, if I were put into her position, I would surely kill myself. No, I’m serious. Crippled, in pain physically and emotionally, disease sticking to her like fruit flies, there is nothing to live for.

And I thought I had it bad.

Ha. Now thinking about my own petty problems and those of my friends, what a joke. None of us has experienced pain to that degree. Excess schoolwork, boy troubles, family fights, and shopping dilemmas? They don’t even scratch the surface.

Frida made me take a new perspective on life. She showed me that no matter how strong the pain, the human will is exponentially so. No matter how tough life gets, so many others have lived it through.

And at the end of the crappy day, just when I’m about to complain, I think of Frida. And then I step outside myself and laugh.