Lessons in Resilience from My Best Friend

Lessons in Resilience from My Best Friend

Life rarely goes according to plan. I’ve learned that through years of navigating personal and professional transitions. But no one taught me that lesson better than my best buddy, Deluva.

Deluva is my best friend. He started out as a giant puppy with the paws of a fully grown American Bulldog, and boy, did he grow into them quickly. He didn’t have a fair start—living in a tiny crate in a neglected home, smelling of cigarettes, with no training or freedom. Then he rescued us and found his furever home (thanks to an amazing foster home and rescue), and everything changed. Freedom came with structure and rules. He adapted, learned, and grew. From an untrained rescue to a frisbee athlete, from surviving to thriving and having lots of fun and hugs, Deluva took on every challenge, and in doing so, he showed me what resilience really looks like.

Earlier this year, I decided to move? forward with my career to seek out new opportunities —a decision that will bring on a different set of challenges. But just like when I had to move on from my first successful directing and producing career at Tampa Digital, when I had to leave the challenging freelance world for HSN, and when I left HSN to start my own company, it was time for growth. Consulting with companies, leading projects across industries, and stepping into new worlds—cannabis, operations at content studios, agencies, production managing for massive projects—each challenge brought new opportunities to stretch further. Was it difficult? Nerve Wracking? Of course it was. As I navigate these necessary shifts, I think of Deluva, who never stopped adapting. He helped us foster puppies back to health teaching them patience and obedience, never getting frustrated when they would jump on him and follow him everywhere and he never showed signs of sadness when they would leave to go to their furever homes. Even in his final years, he adjusted to all the changes and challenges in our lives (and we had plenty), always being the rock we needed, regardless of his health.

Life isn’t always fair—not for anyone, not for him. But Deluva never cared about fairness. He cared about moving forward. About learning something new. Just like me. From moving from one role to the next, facing new challenges, losing clients unexpectedly, selling and buying homes, fighting to succeed and win new ones, and knowing when to step away from one venture to pursue new ones, I’ve embraced the lessons: adapt, persist, thrive, survive, bump, persist, and thrive again.

Deluva’s story reminds me that success doesn’t come from waiting for life to treat you kindly—it comes from how you face the storm, how you keep growing, and how you find joy, even when things don’t go your way. That’s what Deluva taught me. And that’s how I live.

Deluva's Final Journey and Lasting Legacy

Deluva would have been 13 years old in January. He had a remarkable life, but the past few months were difficult. He hid his illnesses so well that even the vet missed them during his senior panel just weeks ago. He pounced through his last hurricane with us as if nothing was wrong, but shortly after, he started to drift. We discovered a mass on his spleen and congestive heart failure—things he had kept from us until he couldn’t anymore. Despite his condition, he gave us everything he had, wagging his tail, lots of kisses? and staying by our side, as if trying to protect us from his own pain.

When it was time for him to go, it was as if he told me himself. As hard as it was, we had to let him rest. He passed two hours after coming home from the hospital, still the strong, loving dog we had always known.

Deluva will always be a huge part of my heart, and his impact on my life will never fade. He taught me more about resilience, love, and how to face life’s challenges than any person ever could. His legacy is a powerful reminder that, no matter how difficult the journey, there’s always room to evolve and find new strengths waiting on the other side.