My friend and I were out in the rain, and I was asked why I left my stuffed animal keychain clipped to my backpack if it will get wet. I wanted to reply with an offhand joke about how being out in the rain builds character. Is there a German expression that means more or less the same thing?
Edit: No, this not a duplicate, though I acknowledge that there's a decent amount of overlap. However, the expression "to build character" in English can be used in a variety of contexts, some of them borderline flippant. I am US-American, and the context in which I see it most often is when parents make their children do something annoying or inconvenient for them (but is ultimately not a true "struggle"). My friend and I were joking around, referring to my stuffed animal as if "he" were a child rather than a keychain. I wanted to say something like "it builds (my stuffed animal's) character for him to be out in the rain." The expression here lacks the context to answer my question sufficiently and requires me to make inferences/assumptions I'm not necessarily in a position to make.
Thank you!