Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we

“Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!” So says an unknown voice, yet its wisdom echoes across generations, like the sayings of the ancients hidden in simple metaphors. For what is a teabag but a vessel of quiet power? In still water it lies dormant, its essence concealed, its fragrance hidden. But once cast into the fire of boiling water, it reveals its true nature, filling the vessel with richness, color, and strength. So it is with women, whose might is often veiled until trials awaken it.

The ancients spoke of strength revealed through suffering, of courage born from hardship. They knew that comfort breeds little greatness, but calamity brings forth the hidden powers of the soul. The saying of the teabag captures this truth in homely yet profound imagery: adversity—the hot water—is the test of character. And it is often women, long underestimated, who rise in such moments with a fierceness and resilience that astonishes the world.

Consider the tale of Joan of Arc, a young peasant girl in medieval France. Before the storm of war, she was but a simple maiden, unknown and unseen. But when her nation was in despair, when the hot water of invasion threatened to consume her people, her strength was revealed. She led armies, inspired warriors, and altered the course of history. Her power did not lie in rank or wealth, but in the hidden reservoir of courage awakened by crisis. She was a teabag plunged into boiling water, releasing strength that had always been within her.

History offers many such examples. In the Second World War, when men went to battle, it was women who bore nations upon their shoulders—working in factories, nursing the wounded, raising children amidst bombings and scarcity. The world discovered then that women’s strength was not fragile, but enduring. Their patience, resilience, and quiet determination proved to be as mighty as armies. The hot water of war revealed their essence, not as frailty, but as fortitude.

O children of tomorrow, know this: the trials of life are not curses but revelations. Hot water does not destroy the teabag; it unveils its richness. Likewise, adversity does not break the strong soul; it unveils its greatness. Women, like men, carry within them reservoirs of strength unknown even to themselves until hardship calls it forth. When the storm comes, when the fire burns, do not despair—this is the hour when your true nature is revealed.

The lesson is clear: do not fear adversity. Instead, see it as the test that awakens your hidden gifts. Just as tea releases its flavor only in heat, so too your courage, patience, and creativity are drawn out by challenge. Practically, let each person do this: when trials come, ask not “Why me?” but “What strength is this trial calling forth in me?” And when you see others in their own boiling waters, do not pity them as weak—encourage them, for their hidden essence is being revealed.

Thus remember this unknown yet timeless wisdom: “Women are like teabags. We don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water.” Carry it as a proverb of resilience. For life will surely bring the heat, but in that heat, the fragrance of your soul will be released, and the world will know the strength that lay hidden within you all along.