The Story of My Life Book

"Thus it is that my friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges, and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my deprivation."

This captivating memoir written by Helen Keller at the age of twenty-two was such a refreshing read! It really did manage to put a smile on my face and restore my spirit at a time when it seems so much negativity envelops us. There is no doubt that Helen was a remarkable woman and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, a blessing and a devoted friend.

Having lost her sight and her hearing at a very young age, Helen was most likely destined to a life full of isolation, frustration, and perhaps hopelessness. However, through some very influential connections -including one with the great Alexander Graham Bell himself, Helen was eventually put in touch with the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston and Anne Sullivan, one of the school's distinguished graduates. In 1887, just before Helen's seventh birthday, Anne arrived at the Keller's home in Tuscumbia, Alabama. From this point, Helen's life changed forever as she embarked on a journey of learning despite all odds. The perseverance of both student and teacher led to a remarkable accomplishment - that of Helen's graduation from Radcliffe College with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

What I loved most about Helen's narrative was her positive outlook, her generosity towards others, and her love of nature and literature. I was quite surprised to read some of her descriptions of the world around her; one would not have guessed that her eyes and ears failed her. She used her other senses and her understanding of the things she learned to absorb everything almost like they were a part of her own being. Helen explained this more eloquently than I:

"Each individual has a subconscious memory of the green earth and murmuring waters, and blindness and deafness cannot rob him of this gift from past generations. This inherited capacity is a sort of sixth sense - a soul-sense which sees, hears, feels, all in one."

My only "criticism", if you will, of this memoir was that it also included a series of letters to and from Helen Keller throughout her young and college-aged life. While these were certainly interesting, they were also somewhat repetitive and later leaned heavily towards details of the series of exams Helen had to take throughout her schooling. That aside, this book truly was inspirational. When I think about what both Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan accomplished together, it really is exceptional. There were so many obstacles but these were overcome by the determination of the student and the dedication of the teacher. I was astounded to discover that Anne very often had to "read" textbooks to Helen by use of the manual alphabet when the Braille texts were not available. Anne's eyesight, which was impaired to begin with, would also be strained and compromised by overuse. The friendship between these two is striking and heartwarming as well. Their companionship would last until Anne's death in 1936.

"I feel that her being is inseparable from my own, and that the footsteps of my life are in hers. All the best of me belongs to her - there is not a talent, or an aspiration or a joy in me that has not been awakened by her loving touch."