REMAINING OPTIMISTIC DESPITE HARDSHIPS

When Steve Gross, Chief Playmaker for the Life is good Playmakers, met Katya Marshall, he was incredibly moved by her optimistic spirit despite a very difficult childhood. This is her story.

Getting to meet optimists from all over the world is the best part of being Chief Playmaker.  It’s the piece of my “compensation package” that makes me one of the richest men in the world.  I’m continually awed and inspired by people who – for some reason – grow to be joyful, loving, and persistently positive despite enduring unimaginable pain, loss, suffering, and injustice. Katya Marshall is one such person.

I met Katya right after giving a keynote speech in Lake Placid, NY.   I was gathering up my stuff when I noticed this beautiful and bubbly little girl (I was shocked to learn later that she was 17 years old) waiting to speak with me.  She shook my hand, introduced herself and told me that she could relate to everything that I said because – as she put it – “I’m a huge optimist too.”

As Katya and I got to know each other, I later learned that at age three she witnessed the violent death of her mother at the hands of her alcoholic boyfriend and, as a result, spent much of her childhood – all the way up to age 11 – in a Russian orphanage.  This was not exactly the “feel good childhood story” that I was expecting to hear from a self-proclaimed young optimist.  However, after listening to Katya share a few of her “half-full” recollections from childhood (talk about turning life’s lemons into lemonade), her current perspective on life, and hearing the incredibly heartwarming story of how she met her adoptive mom and dad, it once again confirmed Life is good’s core belief that optimism can take you anywhere.

I caught up with Katya at her home where she shared old family photos and stories about her childhood.  Check it out:

Katya on making the most of what you have:

Katya in Russia (wearing hat):

Katya with her adoptive parents:

Katya’s mom shares her story about the first time meeting her daughter:

Click here to learn more about Steve Gross and the work of the Life is good Playmakers.