OVERCOMING
THE ODDS THEODORE ROOSEVELT PLEASE READ This ones a good one. I've told
people on Social Media that I refuse to discuss my Political Views and
still adhere to that principle. I enjoy reading people's political
posts though, whether conservative or liberal etc. I ask that we dont
get into a political discussion. However, I will admit my Favorite U.S.
President is Theodore Roosevelt. Despite being born to a Privileged
Family, Theodore Roosevelt Overcame Odds like No other. This is not a
Full Retrospect of his Presidency or Life in General. It's just a look
at the Odds he Overcame throughout his whole life.
Roosevelt's
youth was largely shaped by his poor health and his need to overcome
severe asthma, which has a debilitating impact on the body and
personality. He repeatedly experienced sudden nighttime asthma attacks
that caused near deathlike experiences of being smothered to death,
terrifying Theodore and his parents. Doctors had no cure. Nevertheless,
he was energetic and mischievously inquisitive. He even began to work
out to build his body. He had discovered the significant benefits of
physical exertion to minimize his asthma and bolster his spirits With
encouragement from his father, Roosevelt began a heavy regime of
exercise. After being manhandled by two older boys on a camping trip, he
found a boxing coach to help him strengthen his weakened body and
psyche. Roosevelt later articulated the abiding influence of the
courageous men he read about, including those in his family: "I was
nervous and timid. Yet from reading of the people I admired – ranging
from the soldiers of Valley Forge and Morgan's riflemen, to the heroes
of my favorite stories – and from hearing of the feats of my southern
forefathers and kinsfolk and from knowing my father, I felt a great
admiration for men who were fearless and who could hold their own in the
world, and I had a great desire to be like them.
Due to his
poor health as a child, Roosevelt was mostly Home Schooled. However,
that didnt stop him from being a Star Student at Harvard. Roosevelt's
Father died while he was at Harvard which greatly devastated him.
However, Teddy doubled his activities and focused even harder on his
studies and excelled.
Fast forwarding to Teddy's First
Marriage. TR's first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, died the same day as
TR's mother and this was just two day's after Alice had given birth to
Teddy's first child.
On October 14, 1912, while campaigning in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt was shot by a saloonkeeper named John
Flammang Schrank, but the bullet lodged in his chest only after
penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a thick
single-folded copy of the speech he was carrying in his jacket.
Roosevelt, as an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded
that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not completely
penetrated the chest wall to his lung, and he declined suggestions to go
to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech
with blood seeping into his shirt. He spoke for 90 minutes. His opening
comments to the gathered crowd were, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't
know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it
takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. Afterwards, probes and an
x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt's chest muscle, but
did not penetrate the pleura, and it would be less dangerous to leave
it in place. Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his
life.
During a trip to South America in his Post-Presidency,
Roosevelt suffered a minor leg wound after he jumped into the river to
try to prevent two canoes from smashing against the rocks. The flesh
wound he received, however, soon gave him tropical fever that resembled
the malaria he had contracted while in Cuba fifteen years before.
Because the bullet lodged in his chest from the assassination attempt in
1912 was never removed, his health worsened from the infection.This
weakened Roosevelt so greatly that six weeks into the adventure, he had
to be attended to day and night by the expedition's physician and his
son Kermit. By then, he could not walk because of the infection in his
injured leg and an infirmity in the other, which was due to a traffic
accident a decade earlier. Roosevelt was riddled with chest pains,
fighting a fever that soared to 103 °F (39 °C) and at times made him
delirious. Regarding his condition as a threat to the survival of the
others, Roosevelt insisted he be left behind to allow the poorly
provisioned expedition to proceed as rapidly as it could. Only an appeal
by his son persuaded him to continue. Teddy survived.
Teddy
Roosevelt overcame poor health as a child, the odds of not excelling at
an Ivy League School due to an unstructured education, the loss of his
father, the loss of his wife and mother on the same day, an
Assassination attempt in which he then spoke for 90 minutes with the
bullet in his body, a near death experience in South America and became
President and a War Hero.
My friends, If this is not OVERCOMING
THE ODDS I dont know what is?? Teddy Roosevelt, An American Lion, A
Man Who Could Not Be Bought!! Long Live TR!!!
