Yet the way we respond and handle these things are important – it informs just how we are shaped by adversity, and how we become better people.
Admittedly, persevering during these times of trouble is easier said than done, especially when you are still in your youth.
Not only is the situation already difficult in and of itself, but the brain of the adolescent is still developing.
The volatility of their emotions are at an all-time high, and the part of the brain responsible for regulating emotions is still trying to catch up.
In other words, these youth feel pain and suffering more deeply and more intensely, which is something that should not be simply dismissed.
This turmoil that one must face on the cusp of adulthood inevitably leads to these young adults making life-changing decisions.
In the case of Katie Stubblefield, it was an attempt at her own life.
When she was 18 years old in 2014, she discovered that her then boyfriend had been cheating on her.
She broke up with him, but that wasn’t the end of her troubles.
She soon had to undergo surgery for her chronic gastrointestinal problems, and shortly thereafter her mother’s job at the school Katie went to was suddenly terminated.
Overwhelmed and desperate, Katie took a gun and tried to commit suicide.
Instead of killing her, the shot shattered parts of her forehead and her cheekbones, and completely destroyed her nose and sinuses while leaving her brain completely exposed.
According to Dr Brian Gastman, who worked at Cleveland Clinic (the hospital that saved Katie’s life), the girl’s case was one of the worst face traumas he had ever come across.
The girl’s chances of survival were grim – with her brain exposed to the elements, she could die of infections or seizures.
Miraculously, the girl made it through and recovered.
It was, however, not without cost – she had essentially lost her entire face.
After proving to have survived, it brought up the question – should she attempt a face transplant?
After 20 surgeries to save her life, Katie decided that she wanted to undergo such a procedure, should the opportunity arise.
Now 22-years-old, she is a very different person who had no memory of the suicide attempt, and is horrified at the trauma she had put her parents through.
At this age, she also happens to be the youngest person in the world to undergo a full face transplant.
Despite all the concerns and the problems that Katie and her medical team had to work through, Katie once again has a face.
She will still have to undergo some physical therapy to relearn eating and talking, but it truly is a miracle to see just how far she’s come
Nigeria has seen the rise and fall of many military regimes since she became a sovereign state in 1960 and this, at every turn, has altered the direction of the country.
General Sani Abacha is perhaps Nigeria’s most enigmatic head of state. He reigned from 1993 until his death in 1998. General Abacha was born in Kano state, northern Nigeria on September 20, 1943. He hails from Kanuri in Borno state.
He passed out of the Nigerian Military Training Centre in Kaduna where he proceeded to Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England before being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1963.
On the 27th of May, 1967, General Yakubu Gowon promulgated decree number 14 which created 12 states (six in the north and six in the south) out of the former four regions in Nigeria. Governor of the Eastern Region, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, saw this creation of states (without consultation) as a breach of the 1967 Aburi Accord.
