Expect the Unexpected: Conversations On Trauma, Resilience & Healing

Karen Aponte

People of all ages go through some sort of struggle unexpectedly in their life: death in their family or friend group, loss of job, or physical and mental illness. For my thesis project, I explored how college students in SUNY New Paltz can come together and normalize struggle by having conversations about it. Learning how to identify, cope, accept and speak about one’s own struggle allows us to persevere.
Expect the Unexpected: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, & Healing is an interactive publication featuring stories of SUNY New Paltz students who faced some sort of adversity through their college years. The book offers coping strategies, techniques and tools to help readers move from surviving to thriving through adversity. These stories give the readers a glimpse of the trauma these students have faced, how they were able to process it and the many ways they healed from it. The book serves as a slow start to understanding what it means to accept and normalize adversity while providing a variety of perspectives and experiences.