keep climbing

Book Review
Keep Climbing: How I Beat Cancer and Reached the Top of the World
by Sean Swarner with Rusty Fischer

this book was amazing. i highly recommend you read it. it is a great reminder that we are so blessed with each day of our life.

last month during Q. Marketplace at work we had Sean Swarner speak. he spoke on Thursday 1/14. i only worked a half a day because thursday afternoon was my flight to tampa. i read the very short bio about sean swarner on the agenda and instantly wished i could have stayed to watch him speak. before he got up on stage their was a short little video giving a summary of his life. i was instantly brought to tears, and put a thought into the back of my head to look up this guy when i got back into town. ...plus he was ridiculously good looking. so that's what i did. i went online, found his website, and his book. i reserved the book from the library and just finished reading it.

his story is truly awe-inspiring. sean is a two time cancer survivor with only one fully functioning lung. and has climbing Everest! hello!, that's just about crazy. the book talks in detail about his own personal struggle with cancer and his battle with getting better. as his cancer becomes a thing of the past and he grows up, he then finds himself asking "what do i want to do when i grow up?". he decides he wants to be the first cancer survivor to climb Everest. he then takes the risky move from OH to CO to train for this climb. he moves to Estes Park, CO with his younger brother with just about no money and a good idea. they founded CancerClimber.org, and start making phone calls to get sponsors to make the journey to Everest a reality.

reading a true story like this, you can't help but reflect on your own life, and the decisions you make to have everyday be special. because truly, isn't it? isn't today special?, isn't this moment special? ~absolutely!, but it is up to us to make it so. i tell myself that when i'm working out. although it is a strong habit of mine, that unfortunately doesn't make it easy. and while i'm moving at the gym, i tell myself i'm doing this because i can, because i know that there are people out there who wish they could but that they can't. so i keep going because today is special!

i truly didn't want this story to end. which is the one thing i didn't like so much about this book. it ended. i wanted to continue reading his story. i wish that the ending had a little bit more of a summary, but it doesn't really. so if i could change one thing that's what it would be.

i would highly suggest you read this book. it's books like this to make you truly thankful for your life. we all have our own roads that we travel upon and i think until we go through something that is truly life threatening we can't truly live each day as if it could be your last. but what i believe i can do, is try.

abs/legs
Zumba 60min