caitlinwaters
QUESTION! QUESTION..QUESTION?
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- Apr 21, 2019
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Anyone here ever read Swimming to Antarctica?
I recently stumbled upon it at my school's library and was instantly captivated. Although I have the habit of devouring any kind of book, regardless of genre or subject, I haven't really read a lot of sports memoirs before. I really loved memoirs, mainly because the ones I have read are so unbelievably real yet it seems like fiction. Swimming to Antarctica is one of those books.
It is inspiring and it awakes motivation in me like no other book ever has. It might be because I understand it personally (the obstacles of swimming) or it might just be because it really is a great book. It is a memoir about Lynne Cox, an amazing inspiration of a person. She accomplished more goals before her 20s than I ever have in my entire existence. She is legendary and it took me this long to read this book. For anyone out there who hasn't had a chance to read it, I 100% recommend it.
It is such a visual book and it makes me want to try the impossible. Swimming to Antarctica is all about reaching for the unattainable and what makes it even more special is that it isn't fictional. It's REAL. Lynne Cox continued to put her best efforts, materially and mentally, towards her goal. No matter how long it took her or how many times she failed, she kept persevering and analyzing the errors in her ways so she could try again and accomplish whatever it was. As William Whewell said, "every failure is a step to success". Success is not final and failure isn't fatal, what mattered it that she she never gave up and never lost courage.
My favorite thing about this book is that it just puts my mind at ease. My whole life, any time someone would ask me to do something or any time I had school work to do, I would ALWAYS do it my way, regardless of the consequences. I would put the best of my creativity towards that one task I had and I would create something I could be proud of. Most often than not, instead of encouraging me, my acquaintances would tell me to rethink it and that I shouldn't do it, because that wasn't the way it was usually done. But then I always thought to myself, "just because something has never been done before, it doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be done". And so I would go on with it and the results were usually good. Of course, things didn't always work out how I expected it or how I wanted it to, but that just taught me more so I wouldn't repeat the same mistake next time.
In this book, there were so many obstacles in Lynne Cox's way. People dictating what she could do and what she couldn't. People telling her she was just endangering herself and telling her she was just being foolish and reckless. She faced a whole country and she won. She convinced both the United Stated and The Soviet Union to let her swim the Bering Strait. And even after she accomplished that 11 year goal, there was still people doubting her and telling her she couldn't do this or that.
I love that she only listened to herself, instead of paying attention to all the obstacles putting her down.
It's with the help of people like her that our society can change. Be yourself and don't ever let anyone tell you what you can and can't do. Be the impossible. Do the impossible.
I recently stumbled upon it at my school's library and was instantly captivated. Although I have the habit of devouring any kind of book, regardless of genre or subject, I haven't really read a lot of sports memoirs before. I really loved memoirs, mainly because the ones I have read are so unbelievably real yet it seems like fiction. Swimming to Antarctica is one of those books.
It is inspiring and it awakes motivation in me like no other book ever has. It might be because I understand it personally (the obstacles of swimming) or it might just be because it really is a great book. It is a memoir about Lynne Cox, an amazing inspiration of a person. She accomplished more goals before her 20s than I ever have in my entire existence. She is legendary and it took me this long to read this book. For anyone out there who hasn't had a chance to read it, I 100% recommend it.
It is such a visual book and it makes me want to try the impossible. Swimming to Antarctica is all about reaching for the unattainable and what makes it even more special is that it isn't fictional. It's REAL. Lynne Cox continued to put her best efforts, materially and mentally, towards her goal. No matter how long it took her or how many times she failed, she kept persevering and analyzing the errors in her ways so she could try again and accomplish whatever it was. As William Whewell said, "every failure is a step to success". Success is not final and failure isn't fatal, what mattered it that she she never gave up and never lost courage.
My favorite thing about this book is that it just puts my mind at ease. My whole life, any time someone would ask me to do something or any time I had school work to do, I would ALWAYS do it my way, regardless of the consequences. I would put the best of my creativity towards that one task I had and I would create something I could be proud of. Most often than not, instead of encouraging me, my acquaintances would tell me to rethink it and that I shouldn't do it, because that wasn't the way it was usually done. But then I always thought to myself, "just because something has never been done before, it doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be done". And so I would go on with it and the results were usually good. Of course, things didn't always work out how I expected it or how I wanted it to, but that just taught me more so I wouldn't repeat the same mistake next time.
In this book, there were so many obstacles in Lynne Cox's way. People dictating what she could do and what she couldn't. People telling her she was just endangering herself and telling her she was just being foolish and reckless. She faced a whole country and she won. She convinced both the United Stated and The Soviet Union to let her swim the Bering Strait. And even after she accomplished that 11 year goal, there was still people doubting her and telling her she couldn't do this or that.
I love that she only listened to herself, instead of paying attention to all the obstacles putting her down.
It's with the help of people like her that our society can change. Be yourself and don't ever let anyone tell you what you can and can't do. Be the impossible. Do the impossible.