Helen Keller

Helen Keller
Have you ever imagined living in a world without sound and never able to hear a bird singing? Can you ever envision living in a world of darkness and never seeing a beautiful rainbow? Millions of deaf blind people have experienced this. One such person who lived in a dark and soundless world, who had never heard a bird singing or had seen a beautiful rainbow found a way to bring light to many other people. My hero is Helen Keller because she was an indefatigable, intelligent, and devoted person.
Helen Keller was indefatigable because she did not give up when she was facing the worse illness in her life. On June 27, 1880 Helen Keller was born in a little town of northern Alabama. Keller’s life was wonderful at first, her parents treated her very well. Then nightmare shattered the family, a horrible disease permanently damaged Keller’s senses of hearing and sight when she was only 19 months old. Keller’s life was dark and glooming after her illness. She could not do anything until Anne Mansfield Sullivan came into her life. Sullivan started teaching Keller alphabet by using her fingers to spell letters into Keller’s hand. At first Keller was very confused. However, she did not give up trying. She soon knew how to spell many words in the correct order, but she did not know what the words meant. One day, Sullivan took Keller outside to the water pump, she put a stream of water over Keller’s hands as she spelled the word, “water”. Keller suddenly realized that water means the cool thing that was flowing over her hands. Keller showed her indefatigable spirit through her hard work. It seemed like an impossible task, but she did it. She gave me the strength to believe that I can do the same thing too.
Keller was very intelligent. She wrote so many great books that influenced many other people. As Keller was growing up, she could soon write and speak with Sullivan’s help. Keller took the preliminary examinations for Radcliffe College and was accepted in 1897. At Radcliffe, Keller had some very hard time in her classes at the beginning. But with Sullivan’s help and her undefeated efforts. Keller graduated with the highest honor in 1904. Then she began to write her book The Story of My Life for the Ladies’ Home Journal. Her book soon began very popular and was printed in 50 different languages. Keller’s great efforts demonstrated her unique intelligence even though she had a disability in the area of language and understanding. It does not only impact me on what a strong person she was, but also in similar to the situation I was in when I first came the United States for the first time and not knowing any English.
Keller was also very devoted. She had helped many other disabled people overcome their difficulties. In 1936, after Anne Sullivan died. Keller moved to Connecticut. On her tours before and after WWII, she visited France, Germany, Africa, India, Japan, Australia, etc. for a total of 39 countries while traveling around the world to lecture. She met England’s King George and Queen Mary at Buckingham Parlance while traveling. She visited hospitals and helped wounded soldiers who were blinded or deafened from the battle. Then something bad happened in 1946 when Keller went on a tour of Europe for the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind. Their house in Connecticut burned down. Because of the fire, Keller lost one precious object that was truly irreplaceable: her manuscript of Sullivan’s biography, representing six years of her work. However, Keller did not give up, she started to rewrite the entire book and it was published nine years after by the title, Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy. Keller had done so much to defeat her disability, yet she had also devoted the rest of her life to help other disabled people, just like any other heroes in the history. She showed us how much she cared about the world and how she used her effort to make it a better place. Our world is like a big family; we should all work together and help each other, just like Helen Keller.
Throughout her whole life Helen Keller was a miracle to the world. She met with every President who served in her lifetime, and she received many honors and traveled around the world to help disabled people. President Ronald Reagan set the week of June 23 through June 29 as Helen Keller Deaf-blind Awareness week. The woman who never saw a beautiful rainbow and heard a bird singing, found a way to bring light to many other people. She is like an angel from the heaven. She did not only overcame her terrible disability, but she also brought light to other people through her accomplishment. She had done so many great contributions that anybody could ever done. She will be cherished in the memories of millions forever.