Optimism In Alex Zanardi's Dear Miss Breed

Imagine…..a young man is driving over 500mph. He hits the brakes a little too fast and flips, over and over again. He wakes up finding out his legs are gone and his Formula One career is over. This was the case for Alex Zanardi. Alex lost both of his legs in a Formula One crash in 2001. Instead of falling deep into depression, Alex pushed through his setback and won a gold medal in handcycling. Many people have asked Alex how he managed to get past all that and be where is is today. His answer was simple: Optimism. Alex went through a lengthy hardship, as did the Japanese- Americans during World War II. A collection of letters sent by the Japanese- Americans was turned into the book Dear Miss Breed. It tells the stories of young children, who

First of all, pessimist’s criticism is not always wrong even if it is negative. Take everything they say into consideration before denouncing their input. Do not push your optimistic views on pessimists because it is very similar to politics, a politician’s mind can't be changed, but do be persistent in your output. Louise Ogawa is an example of someone who chooses to be optimistic in time of conflict. She states “One of the most beautiful sceneries was when crossing a bridge which was right above the Colorado River. It is, indeed, a beautiful river.” Other children in her situation would be worrying about the future but Louise enjoys her last moments of freedom looking at the beautiful river on her trip to Poston Internment

“Jeremy Lin, an NBA all star, was waived by the NBA draft two times in two weeks. Now he is shattering records within the NBA.” Elizabeth Smart was a kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City when she was 14 and rescued almost nine months later. She is now a journalist and a famous author. These famous people all had to overcome adversity to be where they are today. A young girl had her tonsils removed and became very sick afterwards, the cause was her lingual artery was cut during her tonsillectomy. She stated “My mom called the ENT office and the doctor on call (not the person who performed the surgery and not the person who suctioned out my throat) said that I had to go to the hospital so he could cauterize my throat. When my mom was on the phone, I passed out again. I truly believed that I was going to die.“ Later she explains that her way of staying hopeful, throughout her debacle, was to be optimistic from this quote ”Those words have stuck with me since the surgery. One and a million. I figured that I could look at that in two ways: I could be the one in a million for bad things or I could be one in a million for good things” Before her surgery to sew up her lingual artery the doctor said there was one in a million chance she would survive. What she means is not to wait and worry for the bad things to happen but to enjoy what is happening here and know. These are all