overcoming adversity
by Norman B. of HIgh Tech High International '14
In every journey, there comes a difficult time in your life that determines whether you are a true athlete or not. You cannot decide your own fate, but you can learn to grow stronger and learn to pick yourself back up. In these three books, the athletes tell the stories of setbacks in their careers in which an average person would quit. They aren’t average because they chose to learn from their struggles and chose to pick themselves back up. I was interested in these novels because I am an athlete myself, and I’ve gone through great adversity as well. I wanted to see how these athletes overcame their odds.
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I Beat the Odds
by Michael Oher - 277 pages This biography is about Baltimore Ravens’ offensive tackle Michael Oher of the National Football League. He was one of thirteen homeless children in his family. He explains his mentality of how he overcame the odds by setting little goals each day to become a better person than the previous day, whether it be at school, sports, or life. His experience tells how he has shaped into the famous professional athlete he is today. Those who have enjoyed The Blind Side may enjoy learning more about Michael Oher and his personal life. |
Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton - 240 pages Soul Surfer is about young teenage girl named Bethany Hamilton who is a competitive surfer. At age thirteen, she lost her arm in a shark attack. She was afraid to go back into the water for a short while, but with the encouragement of family and friends, she decided to stick to her passion and return to competitive surfing. She learned how to surf without her arm and went out to win several surfing championships. It’s inspiring that such a tragic event didn’t hold her back from achieving her goals. |
Born to Run Christopher McDougall - 287 pages Christopher McDougall is a long-distance runner who journals about his own experience and that of others. In Born to Run, he chronicles the lives of different long-distance runners from around the world and explains how some have the ability to run for a long time with ease, and others, like himself, repeatedly endure grueling injuries. McDougall discovers the different techniques and takes his knowledge from a certain tribe named the Tarahumara to train for and run a fifty-mile race in northwestern Mexico. It’s inspiring to read about an athlete who has gone through injuries in a sport that he loves and still competes in this brutal race. |