not a funny story. sorry
i'm reading this prompt; the thing that doesn't kill you makes you stronger. i'm racking my ganglia, trying to find an easy story from my youth, that will fit into tjis very hopeful asdimption. if it doesn't kill you, it shall make you stronger.
but i find difficulty in that. things that dont kill you are either non-threats, or non-hardships, like mosquitos or the flu, or they are serious threats that you somehow overcame. if you overcame them through sheer luck , then you are likely to've never grown stronger. only if you overcame this sipposed intense, life threatening challenge through effort and cunning , then you might actually become stronger on some way than before, IF you were not severly mutilated or mentally handicapped by the experience.
i think neitzche, in his division between those that allow themselves to become victims and those who are beyond this human farilty, seems to find it a thing of ease. 'oh, sure, you throw away all your preconceptions, look the EVERYTHING rationally, weighing you best interest as the only fundamental existential cornerstone, and..you know...rise above yourself..easy peasy.' (direct quote, i believe)
it is not easy peasy and impossible to maintain in the long run. (incidentally i am sure that a quick look at big N.'s life , and we see that he was no übermaentsch. )
i say this. one of the first encounters i had with this grandiose saying, was when i watched the film Conan tbe Barbarian. the quote starts the film off, with a heroic forging of the great sword. the film is truly underrated as a cinematic masterpiece that it is. but i assert that if anything, it DOES NOT teach us that the will to rise above our low drives is the key to becoming stronger. Conan battles Thulsa Doom. he is motivated by revenge above all else (something the big N would frown on ) and his will to survive and succeed can not be said to be greater than The evil wizard (the great James Earl Jones!!) . in the end conan wields an enchanted sword, while Thulsa uses that sword that conan's father forged. conan's father was no match to the ancient aquilonian swordsmiths, and the the wizard's sword shattered. it is only then that Conan has the obvioys advantage.
the film is basically is about metallurgy and not existentialism.
my experience in the swamp is so: things that could eat you-will eat you. keep away.
prey on the helpless and you shall live and grow in tentacle. attempt heroism and you are someone's supper. i'll say this of near death experiences: they are near death.
you are lucky if you crawled out of there with just your tail bitten off.
if you want to become stronger. apply yourself to finding ways to increase your strength, or to weed out the competing predetors before the mature.