Helen Keller

Everyone has an impossible dream; becoming a professional basketball player, making it in Hollywood, or becoming a billionaire. Unfortunately, because we don't believe in ourselves, the majority of us won't accomplish these "impossible" dreams. Some of us are destined to be farmers, or plumbers, or McDonald's' cashiers, only because we don't think we can reach our goals. When Helen Adams Keller became deaf and blind at the age of 19 months, people thought they knew what her  future would hold. They never imagined that she would learn to read, write and communicate. No one believed that she would end up being the first deaf-blind person to attend college, and no one dreamed that she would write a book about it all. Well, no one except herself. Helen Keller is an inspiration to everyone because, despite the obstacles and despite the "impossibility" of it, she accomplished things that no one ever believed she could do.

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Helen Keller is a hero to the disabled because she accomplished things that, to a non-disabled person would think simple, but is like climbing Mt. Everest to someone who can't see or hear. Harvard Magazine described her as "world famous' at the young age of seven for having learned to read, write, and communicate" (Shattuck).  She wasn't alone, though. Along with her mother and her well-respected father, Keller had the help of Anne Sullivan, her teacher and friend from when Helen was six and throughout adulthood. But communication is nothing compared to what Keller accomplished later in her life. One day, someone suggested that she "listen" to music. Now obviously, she couldn't hear the music with her ears. Instead, she put her hand on the speaker that the music was playing out of. So rather than hearing the music, she could feel the vibrations. Keller never dreamed that she could enjoy music like some other blind people had, but to her surprise she could feel the "impassioned rhythm, the throb, and the urge of the music!" as she said in a letter she wrote after the event. She stated that she could distinguish the cornets, the roil of the drums, and the deep-toned violas and violins singing (Keller). This achievement is maybe the most moving compared to anything she had ever done before.

Helen Keller is inspiring because not only is she the first deaf-blind person to graduate college, she was also the first to even attend! Even though she really wanted to go to Harvard, they wouldn't admit her, but Radcliffe College did and she earned satisfactory grades in all subjects (Shattuck). Anne Sullivan was by her side the whole time they "struggled together through four years of college like a pair of Siamese twins." (Shattuck). She took classes like English literature, French, German, Latin, Greek, history, and mathematics. She used raised letters and lines for geometry. Attending college was a big deal for Keller and the rest of the world, especially since she was the only deaf-blind person to attend college until 50 years later.

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 Helen Keller is heroic because after college she became a writer, an actress, and an inspiration. In her early 20s, Keller discovered she could write very well, her powerful memorization even got her entangled in involuntary plagiarism (Shattuck). She finished a series of six narratives in 1902 and when she was 23 in 1903, she wrote a full length book with the same title, "The Story of My Life." In 1919, she also played the role of herself in a silent film about her life, entitled, "Deliverance".  It won an academy award, and Keller accepted the Oscar herself. She also spoke to inspire disabled and wounded soldiers and veterans during World War II. She "worked on behalf of others with disabilities." (Biography.com editors)

Some things that were deemed impossible for Helen Keller may seem like a simple thing to you, but making it in the world is hard to begin with, nevertheless with two disabilities. Keller worked hard and believed in what she could and would, do. Helen Keller is an inspiration because she accomplished what no one thought she could do. So the next time you're afraid that your dream is impossible, or that you'll never live your dream, remember that your dream is possible, it takes  hard work and determination no matter who you are so don't give up, work harder. Everyone has an impossible dream. What's yours?

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Helen Keller is a hero to all.

To the disabled,

wounded

and everyone else as well.

Why?

Because she worked hard to live well,

because she believed in her future,

and because she accomplished awesome things.