Quarter 3 - Blog #2

Overcoming Struggle

http://www.bethanyhamilton.com/

The story of Bethany Hamilton captured my attention when looking for people who have faced difficulty in there life, due to her life changing surfing incident. Bethany, a local Hawaiian, was 13 and had been surfing for years at the time a 14 foot tiger shark attacked and left her without her left arm. Surfing off Kauai's shore, she had been lucky to be there with friends and family who are given credit for saving her in time. Bethany lost sixty percent of her blood through this accident but incredibly recovered from sergery without any infections. About a month after this horrific event, Bethany got back in the water to try surfing one-armed. Amazingly, Bethany stayed optomistic and headed back into the spotlight of her surfing competitions soon after, which she had been so well known for before the attack. She prefers to be given the same treatments in the conferences as the other two armed competitors, and does not complain. Bethany continued to win more competitions and has herocially overcome her struggle. She is a supportive and inspirational public figure and is always doing some sort of charity work these days. Bethany has such an amazing story, because unlike others, she maintained who she was even through the hardship, and would not let loosing an arm defeat her passion of surfing.