Journal Entry #1 (Ch. 1-4)

At this point in the book, we have learned that Erik has a disorder which causes him to be partially blind. The doctors tell him that at some point in his life he will go completely blind. Erik’s family, especially his mom, want him to be able to live a normal life, but they know that it will be hard for Erik. Erik’s dad really wanted him to be able to play sports, so Erik has to deal with the fact that he cannot do what his father would want him to do. I think that this would have been a very hard way to live, being blind at a very young age would be difficult to deal with.

Journal #2 (Ch. 5-9)

Erik has continued to lose his vision and he is completely blind by his first of high school. Erik was also dealing with adversity because he was struggling learning Braille and he became very frustrated with the way people were treating. Erik also started to be harder on himself; he thought that everyone was judging him. Around this same time, Erik’s mother was killed in a terrible car accident. At this point, Erik begins to struggle with his faith. I still think that it would be hard to be in Erik’s shoes, it does not seem like his life could get much worse. I also think that it is interesting that Erik talked about the faith aspect of all of this, the only thing we can do in times like that is trust God.

Journal #3 (Ch. 10-13)

The adversity Erik is experiencing in this section of the book is more of the same. Erik’s eyes continue giving him problems; his left eye develops glaucoma. This means that his eye is filling up with a bunch of liquid and it does not have any way to get out. Erik starts to find better ways to cope with the adversity he is facing. He goes to a program for the blind where he meets a bunch of people he can actually relate with. He meets Laura there where he learns that some people have harder lives than him. Laura lost her eyesight to a brain tumor when she was 18. She told Erik that she had to relearn how to walk and talk. I am very glad that Erik was able to find a group of people who he could relate to; that is a very good way to deal with adversity.

Journal #4 (Ch. 14-17)

At this point in the book, Erik has found people that he can trust and who he enjoys being around. Most of the adversity the Erik faced in this section was people not believing that he could climb a mountain because he was blind. With the people saying this we can see very well how Erik as changed throughout the book. At the start of the book, Erik would let things like this bring him down but now he lets it fuel him to do what people think he cannot do. I was very happy to see that Erik was responding positively to adversity for the first time in the book.

Journal #5 (Ch. 18- Epilogue)

The adversity that Erik has faced did not change much since the last reading. People are still not believing in his abilities to climb, just because of his blindness. The other adversity Erik faced was more glaucoma, this time in his right eye. He was told by the doctor that he would have to lose both of his eyes and that they would be replaced with glass eyes. Despite all of this, Erik continues to grow in confidence as he climbs mountains. Before his climb of Everest Erik said he had never felt better, but many people were scared for him. I really enjoyed how Erik changed throughout the book. At the beginning, he was down and out because he was different, but by the end he embraced his differences.

 

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