Darn, i posted this response in a different thread. I should have posted it here... so... i'll post it again!! woohoo!
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The strongest person emotionally/mentally i've ever met is physically disabled Japanese man. Japanese society is horribly intolerant of anything different. They love to pretend disabled people don't exist, (except when they're staring). Its bad to the point that most subway stations don't have disabled access.
Whenever this man left the house, he took back alleys instead of main streets so people wouldn't stare at him. He'd keep his head down, and not look at anyone. One day, he was in an alley, and he saw someone, head down, avoiding eye contact, with the exact same disability as he had. And he thought, am i like that? The other guy was so busy avoiding contact, that he didn't even notice my friend.
At that point he decided to try to change himself, to not be ashamed of who he is, and to stop wishing he was someone else. He was who he was, that will never change, but what he could do is try to make things better. So he stopped taking the alleyways, endured the stares, and built things in his life he could be proud of bit by bit. He found work, failed, tried again, failed, tried again, and again and again, and just never stopped.
He's an old man now, old enough to be my grandfather. He has a great wife, a great family, a great job, a great heart. And he's got this quiet smile thats just so invincible. Something behind it says, "i've been through more in life than you can imagine, and i'm tough enough now that theres nothing you can do to wipe this smile off my face."