Helen Keller

Helen Keller (http://flickr.com/photos/pimu/797918121/)

For those of you who don't know who Helen Keller is, she was a woman who lived most of her life blind and deaf. As an infant, she became very ill and the sickness had left her blind and deaf at only thirteen months old. There was a woman named Anne Sullivan, who had been blinded for several years of her life, but her vision was fixed and she graduated as valedictorian of her class at Perkins School for the Blind. She was encouraged to teach Helen Keller, and was extremely successful. Helen had been so young, and barely been able to speak, but with a little help from Anne, Helen Keller was the first person who was deaf and blind to graduate from a college with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Helen Keller lived in Tuscumbia, Alabama, but travelled world-wide to raise funds for the blind and was known world-wide for many different things. Helen Keller had a few people who helped her throughout her life, but she was an amazing person to have lived such a good life with such big things holding her back.

Braille (http://flickr.com/photos/thepraveenkhanna/2083911232/)

Even without the ability to see or hear, Helen Keller still made some amazing accomplishments. She attended a special college, and was the first deaf-blind person to ever graduate. To a person like you or me, it would seem impossible to accomplish such a great thing without two of the things you use most every day, but Helen Keller didn't let something that affected her life so strongly stand in her way of leading a great life. Any other person who had lost their vision and hearing would most likely not have tried so hard to get a great education at so many different schools.

Not only did Helen Keller graduate, but she also became an author. There are so many non-handicapped people that dream of becoming authors, but never quite make it. Helen was a world-famous author, and yet she had so much less than everyone else. She knew that if she tried hard enough for something that she wanted, she would get it. And then, Helen was world famous for what she wrote.

Remember Helen Keller, always. (http://flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/168544485/)

Helen Keller did not feel bad for herself. She was not just thinking about herself, but others like her. She recognized that if she just felt bad for herself all of the time, the world would go nowhere. With that thought, she and George Kessler founded the Helen Keller International, which is an organization which researches vision, health, and nutrition.

The story of Helen Keller's life can show people that no matter what it is, nothing should be able to stop you from fulfilling your life. Helen Keller International is now working in 25 countries around the world. But I think that if Helen Keller could tell the youth of America one thing, it would be to never let something stand in your way or hold you back.