The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind Essay

No matter how tough times are, there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. This story is an autobiography of the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. William Kamkwamba was a 14-year-old boy who lived in Malawi during rough times. I know that I can play his role in the upcoming Netflix series based on the similarities and differences that we have.

The first similarity between William and I is that we are both thinkers. William Kamkwamba showed this trait when "right away, I realized the blades were too short to catch the wind. I needed to make them longer. In our village, we took our baths in a tiny hut made from grass that was open at the top… The old one was still there, however, and I knew

William shows the traits of a communicator and risk-taker. He showed this trait of being a risk-taker when "together, the two terms equaled over two thousand kwacha. Given what my family had just been through, two thousand kwacha was an impossible amount. I knew my fate was sealed. But instead of going home to face it directly, I tried going to school for free. I snuck in." -(p.166, Kamkwamba). In this quote, we can see that William, despite the consequences, still went to school. An example of when William shows the trait of a communicator is when he is explaining to Gilbert how "the movement energy is provided by the rider. ‘Gilbert, the rider is the wind!’ If I could somehow get the wind to spin the blades on a windmill and rotate the magnets in a dynamo, I could create electricity… ‘Gilbert, I’m going to build a windmill.’ I’d never tried anything like it before. But I knew that if someone else could build them in Europe and America, then I could build one in Malawi. Gilbert smiled. ‘When do we start?’"(p.150). In this quote, William was able to effectively share his idea with Gilbert, which caused Gilbert to help him out. I show the traits of being principled and reflective. I've experienced this trait many times in my life, but the most notable one happened in fourth grade when I was running for school treasurer. During that time, I had many things happening at once, such as an orchestra concert, running for school treasurer, and a Spanish project. One of the things I had to do was create a poster so that people heard or at least knew who I was. Unfortunately, it just so happened that the concert, Spanish project, and poster were due on the same day. Thanks to my procrastination, I realized this one day before everything was due, so I decided to ask my friend if he could help me out, which he was okay with. The next day, we both had to go to the concert and came home around 7. At this time, I called