Background:
Erik Weihenmayer was born September 3rd, 1968 ready to take on the challenges of this world. Erik was no normal boy, he had been born with only partial sight, a degenerative eye disorder, and it was slowly diminishing. The fight to be normal had just begun. Would normal schools accept this partially blind kid? How would he make friends and keep up with the activities they were doing? He is thrown more challenges than your average person but he doesn’t let this stop him. All his life he, would push himself to try and stand out, not just because of his blindness either. His mother, Ellen, and his father, Ed, allowed him the freedom to be nothing short of an adventurer, always pushing him to do his best and more. There are many ups and downs to life, many summits to reach and Erik pushed himself to find the best summits in life.

Structure of Novel:
There are many main characters who hold significant roles in this book, who both help Erik and some who show him how to better overcome adversities. To start off, Erik is the main character and the book is actually written from his perspective, so as you read you get a chance to experience everything kind of how Erik would. There are some points in the book that you wouldn’t get the complete meaning from if you weren’t reading from his perspective. For example, you get to see what was going through his mind when blindness loomed over him, “My fifteen-year-old mind cried out for freedom. I was learning to read, carry my own try, to move around the hallway, all over again. My life seemed to be going in reverse.” (Page 56)
As Erik’s life goes on and he is faced with dwindling sight, both of his parents continue to stand strong by his side. “As I got older, my mother’s love felt overpowering, almost suffocating, while my father allowed me to experience a touch of freedom, even if it meant flopping on my face now and then.” (Page 25) Both of his parents had been from hard working backgrounds, his mother had learned strong work ethics at a young age and continued to push herself to do the best she could with what she had. She became one of the few girls her age to actually finish school, she would also go on to win “Miss Soybean Queen” because of her talent and beauty. His father also worked hard, a Princeton graduate and student at the flight academy, he knew how to push himself and how to work to better those around him also. Throughout the book, Erik also had other influences in his life such as all of the different climbing partners he had worked with. Sam, Chris and Jeff played pretty big roles at times, each having to rely on one another and even on Erik at times, to get through the adversities the mountains would throw at them. Much like his climbing parters, his siblings also played a pretty big part in his life. Having two brothers, Mark and Eddi, really allowed him the experience of a normal life. Finally, his wife Ellen is his biggest supporter. She was always there for Erik when he needed it most, in fact she was along for the adventure herself as well. “I want to live a life that is extraordinary, never ordinary,” (Page 150)
One of the biggest moments in Erik’s life is learning to ride his bicycle. This simple task allows him to achieve a sense of normality, but also paves the way for the greater things he will soon accomplish. As his sight does downhill, Erik is no longer able to do tricks on his ramp with his bike and that is troublesome for him. His dad thinks of the best idea and decides to spray paint the ramp so Erik could at least see the bright colors. This is really a turning point in Erik’s life because he realizes that if he can get over this ramp in life, then he can put forth dedication and grit to work to get over the other ‘ramps’ life may throw his way. During this time, the reality of his blindness starts to hit him and that creates the small worry inside the back of his mind, “Momentarily I was excited, but that was a looming feeling that my life was closing in on me, that brightly painted ramps, trusting brothers, and the rock-hard stubbornness of my own brain, would not be enough to protect me from an inevitable reckoning with blindness.” (Page 30)
As Erik grows up, he finds that he really enjoys climbing and really turns toward that to occupy himself. He was always left with the task of finishing what seemed like impossible challenges when on the mountains, but that wasn’t stopping him, he welcomed the challenges. “So, you continue to climb higher and higher, always finding another summit a little higher, and you never find what you are looking for.” (Page 207) Climbing all of these mountains are leading him up to his ultimate goal, climbing Mount Everest. They build a stair step all the way up to Everest and Erik will not let this mountain conquer him either. He climbs for himself, he wants to prove that his blindness isn’t a weakness, and that is one of the most important points to learn from this book. “I didn’t want to have an easy excuse for backing down…It’s not that I wanted to impress people. I climbed because each time I was able to go one step further, that was one step further than I knew was possible. And when I got to wherever I was heading, I found myself in a place that, at one time, only existed in my imagination.” (Page 238) If you have some sort of disability or even just a struggle in you life, look at it as a mountain waiting to be climbed, rather than one you give up on before you even start trying.

Key Understandings about Adversity:
Obviously, Erik had to overcome some great adversities in this book in order for him to not let blindness beat him. Towards the beginning of the book, Erik focused on trying to be like others, to try and compare himself to them but he quickly learned this wasn’t the way to go on about life. “I desperately focused on trying to keep up with my sighted friends, many of whom played organized sports.” (Page 35) Erik had to learn how to compete with himself, rather than others. He isn’t simply faced with the adversity of fitting in with others, but it’s also accepting who he is as a person and not letting anyone tell him that he is less because of his blindness. “I felt protected by the darkness. At night along country roads or in the woods, we were all equal.” (Page 59)
There were many battles all throughout Erik’s life and he had to pick and choose which ones he would actually fight. Some just weren’t worth it and by knowing the difference, he was able to continue to embrace who he was through his sight. “There are times when a person needs to stand up and assert his rights, but there are also times when it just isn’t worth it, when an amused smile and a shrug are enough for the time being.” (Page 130) This was a pretty big lesson for Erik to learn because at the beginning of the book, he would constantly fight the blindness and it would exhaust him. As the book goes on, he learns that this is wrong and starts to see from a different perspective. “I never forgot that my life rests in my own hands. The feeling is both powerful and terrifying.” (Page 229) I really like this quote because Erik is saying that no one else is allowed to control him, not even his blindness. As a Christian I would like to add that our lives rest in God’s hands and we really have no control over our lives but I believe this quote is just saying that we can’t let others opinions affect us too much.

Reactions and Applications:
Throughout the book, Erik’s feelings toward his blindness was continuously changing and that always had me interested. The events he faced always made an impact on how he ‘saw’ the world. He grew more mature as his life went on and didn’t always let some of the events get to him quite so much and that was good because it would have taken him a while to recover emotionally. He worked through the hard times but never fully let them take a tole on him. There were many different themes throughout the book, one being perseverance. It’s kind of hard not to recognize this as a theme because Erik is continually faced with challenges and he pushes through them to the best of his abilities. Today in the world we are faced with challenges everyday, we may not be in danger of becoming blind but we still need to work to have the perseverance to get through the challenges. One thing that really stuck out to me, more so towards the end of the book, was that Erik can’t even see how beautiful this world is and he is extremely thankful to be living in it. He never really directly says that, but it is obvious in the way he goes about things. People often take life way too much for granted, and not only those who can see. After reading this book, I feel more inclined to see the world from a different perspective and to work that much harder on pursing my goals and ambitions because I have read all about Erik’s and it has somewhat inspired me to put a little bit more effort into life.