14 year old Bahia Bakari surrounded by doctors. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

We all have good days, bad days and truly awful days. Sometimes the people we think we’re super close to turn against us and we’re left wondering who our real friends are. Sometimes much more serious stuff happens… like when parents split up, or a family member is injured, diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, or dies. At times like these it can feel like your whole world has turned upside down because it has!

So what do you do? Standard advice from well-meaning adults is: “Just hang in there. Things will get better.” And that’s true because nothing ever stays the same for long. But “hanging in there” when you don’t know what to hang on to can be a real challenge.

Next time you feel shaken up by what life hands you and could use some inspiration, you might want to think about Bahia Bakari, 14. The other day she was on a plane with her mom and 149 other passengers heading for a vacation on the island of Comoros off the east coast of Africa. Suddenly the plane fell into the ocean and busted apart on impact. It looks like Bahia is the only survivor. How’d she do it? By clinging for 13 hours to a piece of the wreckage until she was rescued. Alone in the ocean for all that time, much of it in the pitch dark, not knowing if anyone would actually come and help her. Talk about hanging in there! Way to go, Bahia! Get well soon, girl!

UPDATE: 11/2/11 I stumbled across this old blog and thought I’d find out what happened to Bahia. Good news! She’s doing very well. last year wrote a memoir  entitled Moi Bahia, la miraculée (“Me Bahia, the miracle girl”)