About

The journey of Life is filled with challenges and rewards. How we perceive the path determines where it brings us. Inspiration is offered in many forms and it's up to us to decipher what it means to us. 

My name is Astrid Hardjana-Large and I host Perseverance Girl to share and learn from what life offers. I have lived with a neurological disease since I was eleven years old. For twenty four years I dealt with spontaneous seizures and head injuries, and am now dealing with the hemiplegic stroke I had in brain surgery to resolve the seizures. Life circumstances that were constantly disrupted by seizures led me to believe in the Principle of Impermanence, where everything (bodies, thoughts) are subject to change and nothing is static. It led me to always try my best while remaining open to learn and flow with change. I continuously search for truth and balance by researching multiple perspectives to prevent hastily making a reaction into an opinion. I've learned that finding relevance to what I trust makes it easier to accept changes and prevent setting permanence.

Perseverance, to me, is more than surviving hardship or persistence in difficult times. Perseverance is a willingness to continuously participate amidst opposing circumstances. My love for perseverance and ability to find peace has been through remembering impermanence, listening to my intuition and using creativity to make the best of what I am learning. 

I offer my work, in all its forms, to provide a small moment of reprieve from the overwhelming moments in life, as a way to broaden perspective while dealing with challenges. They are open to interpret in whichever way is most meaningful for you. In sharing, I hope that other people will also have a small escape and return to who they are. This world is filled with unique and capable individuals, my dream is to have everyone realize that for themselves.

“People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves.” -Paulo Coelho