Challenge

Name: Thomas

Class: 6A

Date: Tuesday February 23, 2011

Have you ever had a challenge that was so hard that you almost had to give up? If you had this challenge, you would see how awesome it is to overcome it. This person who overcame it was so awesome: Bethany Hamiltion. Bethany Meilani Hamilton was her full name. She was born on February 8, 1990 in Kauai, Hawaii. Now, she is 21 years old and has won a lot of world champ surfing cups. She is tall, with yellow hair. She started surfing when she was 8, she was taught by her parents. When she was 8, she won Ist place in the "push and ride" division of a Quicksilver surfing contest. So while she was still a kid, she also won lots of junior surfing cups.

           

Her challenge was that she was in a shark attack. On October 31, 2003 she, her friend Alana Blanchard, and her friend’s family went to Kauai, Hawaii for vacation. At 7:30 A.M. her friend found her lying on the sideway of her board with her left hand dangling in the water. She told her that while she was surfing, a 15 foot tiger shark attacked her and she lost almost 60% of her blood. So she was taken to the hospital, in that morning her dad was supposed to have a knee surgery that morning but she took his place in the operating room. The surgery was a success and she only had to spend seven more days in recovery at the hospital.

After she went home she cried not for joy but sadness for that had lost one of her arm and she think she can’t ever surf again. She was disappointed at first because her left arm was cut off but she didn’t let that incident stop her. Less than 3 months after her shark attack incident, she started surfing again. It was hard for her to stand up on her board because her balance was bad, so she fell down a couple times. But after lots of practice, she stood up on her board and surf again.

If I was a surfer that was in a shark attack, I would never go to surf or swim in the ocean ever again because I would be so afraid if a shark attack would happen again. She is a very compeitive because she likes to compete and I was just like her because I’m also a very compeitive person just like her. So Bethany Hamiltion was one of the world greatest surfers. Althought she only has one hand left; she did not let that stop her surfing. She felt that she was a good surfer no matter what happened to her. She showed that people should be confident to doing something that they feel it is right and you should have courge to show. This will help you overcome a challenge. So that was an awesome challenge that she faced.