I know that idea that suffering makes us better people works for some people, and I don't begrudge them that. It may very well be true for them.

For me, I really am very much the same person I would have been. I was reared by good family, with strong values and a strong faith. I've always been very open minded and pretty understanding and compassionate. I don't believe my suffering taught me that. I believe that came from the modeling of my parents and the strong, kind people I mostly grew up around.

If anything, my suffering tried to close me off from others, tried to snatch my faith from me, separated emotionally for many years from the good around me while I went through illness and treatment and a great degree of self-focus rather than outward focus.

I'm mostly beyond those hardest times now and have finally started reclaiming the me that was always there but buried under the pain.