One Less Arm

        As I was reading, I started thinking.  I started thinking about how weird it is that we all started out not be able to read a single word at all, or even speak a single word.  Now we are required to read hundreds of pages a week, all within about ten years ago when I first started to learn to read.  I guess my mind started drifting while I was reading, Soul Surfer, because it is so easy to read.  I sometimes start thinking about something completely random like that and I have to remind myself of what is going on in the book.  But anyways, as this surfer is training her arm to get back in shape she finds it had to do certain things.  Simple things that we hardly think about such as buttoning your shirt, tying you shoe laces on tennis shoes, anything that requires two hands.  But she has learned that she is a strong person and can last through challenges such as those.  She explains her perspective on her situation.  People often ask her why she is home schooled or why she decides to live thousands of miles away from the rest of the United States.  But she wouldn't wanna live any other way! All her other friends, especially Alana, are also home schooled and she already has a busy schedule when she is out surfing all day.  Her responses sounded a lot like my cousins who are home schooled as well.  They just always loved being independent and learning by their parents who became their teachers.  Whenever they were put in a public school, they would feel out of place, especially because they were much more smart than most other students.  I love that the "soul surfer" is not boy crazy like a lot of people seem to be these days.  She is perfectly content with her friends, and family.  She does not need anyone else to make her happy.  I think that is a strong characteristic that is hard to find sometimes, especially if you attend a public school.  This girl is for sure different than most girls, and there is something about her that still has me wondering.