Resilience and Hope by Jocelyn

Resilience and Hope by Jocelyn - October 2025 Scholarship Essay

Hope can be fragile, but in the right hands, it becomes a form of strength. Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber is a fantasy novel that follows Evangeline Fox, a girl who believes in fairytales and happy endings. Through Evangeline’s journey of facing heartbreak, betrayal, and disappointment, I learned that resilience is not avoiding pain but choosing to keep hoping and moving forward, even when the world tries to break you down.

In the beginning of the novel, Evangeline’s love, Luc, decides to marry her stepsister, Marisol. Heartbroken, Evangeline bargains with Jacks, the Prince of Hearts. In return for stopping the wedding, she has to repay Jacks with something of his choosing. At the wedding, Evangeline's bargain turns out to be far darker than she had imagined, and some of the people closest to her, including Luc, are turned into stone. Overcome with guilt, Evangeline sacrifices herself, turning herself into stone so that the others are freed. Even though her desperation brought painful consequences, she refuses to let her mistake define her. Her resilience shines in her determination to believe in love and herself.

After six weeks of being stone, she’s restored and invited to attend a wedding in the “Magnificent North.” There, she faces curses, dangers, and repeated betrayals, often at the hands of Jacks, who constantly manipulates her trust. Evangeline could have grown bitter and hopeless, but instead, she chooses to keep believing in the possibility of happiness. Her journey helped me realize that hope in dark times isn’t foolish, it is what gives people the courage to keep moving forward.

By the end of the book, Evangeline understands Jacks’s cynicism comes from his own broken heart. Unlike him, she refuses to let pain harden her. She learns that hope is not naive, but rather an act of bravery. True resilience means carrying heartbreak but still believing in a better ending.

I didn’t have the easiest childhood, and like Evangeline, I have faced moments where I wanted to give up. My parents divorced when I was young, and I lived in six different houses. In my mind, I only had various houses where I slept at night and often find myself unable to attach to my rooms and houses now. Later, though, my mother moved on and started dating her best friend, Kelly. I was very close with Kelly’s daughters, and we’d often say we were all sisters. Those years brought me some of my happiest memories and eventually we all moved in together. Things ended up going south, and it was not safe to be there anymore. I have never returned to that house, and I have not talked to my former “sisters” either. The loss felt like a part of my identity had been torn away.

During that time, I struggled to see a future for myself. Yet, like Evangeline, I realized that if I wanted my story to change, I had to choose resilience and hope. That was when I picked up Once Upon a Broken Heart. The story inspired me to start building myself back up. I made new friends through clubs and activities and joined yoga and dance classes. Slowly, I started feeling comfortable in my own skin and was able to move forward, just as Evangeline did.

Evangeline’s story shows that resilience and hope are not weaknesses but strengths. Just as she kept moving despite her heartbreaks, I learned to rise above my hardships and carry my hope into the future. She reminded me that even broken hearts can believe in happy endings and that resilience and hope are the truest magic that carries us forward.