adversity

January 30, 2017 - 5:21pm
On Sunday evening, members of the SU community gathered at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. dinner to reflect on overcoming life's adversities.

J.R. Martinez has endured through many challenges: he has served in the Army, starred in a soap drama and won Dancing with the Stars. But just looking in the mirror was once one of the hardest things to do when a roadside explosion during his tour in Iraq left 30 percent of his body burned.

“I asked myself why. Why do I look like this, why did it happen to me and of course I didn’t know why,” Martinez said, who was only 19 when the explosion happened.