Helen Adams Keller

Helen Keller

To pick just one hero is extremely difficult for me, as I have many heroes, all of them are different and are chosen for different reasons. But as I must just pick one I will have to choose the one that inspires me for many different reasons. I guess you would pick a hero as someone you would want to be like when it’s your time to go out into the big world. But I do not look up to my hero because I want to be like her, as it is actually quite impossible for me to actually know how she feels, I look up to her for the hardships she has overcome in her life. My hero is Helen Keller.

Helen

Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama on June 27th 1880, Helen Adams Keller, appeared to be just a regular baby girl, and she was just that. She was born to the loving parents Captain Arthur Henley Keller, and Kate Adams Keller. She could see, hear, and run free like a normal child discovering the new world. It wasn’t until Helen was 19 months old that everything in the world around her changed. Struck with a terrible illness, which was thought to be possibly scarlet fever or meningitis, Helen lost her ability to see and hear. Helen’s only way she was able to communicate with her family was through sign language; the daughter of the family cook helped Helen in her making signs to communicate.

Helen at Graduation

Helen continued communicating like this until 1886, when her mother found out about Anne Sullivan, an extremely wonderful teacher. She asked Ms. Sullivan to come live at the home to help Helen learn things necessary for her to live. Anne Sullivan accepted the challenge to help Helen, and everything in that young child’s life changed. With the help of Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller learn to understand things better, and eventually went on to be able to speak. Helen attended many schools that appeared nearly impossible for her to get into when she started working with Ms. Sullivan. Helen graduated and went on to become a world famous speaker and an author. She accomplished all of this just because she refused to give up.

Helen is my hero because she went from normal baby girl, to deaf-blind child, to successful woman. She accomplished things nobody believed she could, in that way I want to be accomplished like she was but my struggle is not nearly as great as hers. Helen Keller will be remembered long after everyone is gone, because memories of people live on forever and they last as long as you keep remembering.