‘I think disabled is a very degrading title for athletes. I feel like I’m an incredibly abled person.’ - Bethany Hamilton
This PRO surfer, Bethany Hamilton, began with a marvelous and courageous journey when she was only four. Her parents and their culture played the biggest role in inspiring her to get on the surfboat at such a tender age. She started to compete in amateur contests when she was just eight. She knew her career ladder was pretty promising and she was confident enough to know where she was heading.
But her life had something else in store for her. Her life came to a halt when in the year 2003 on the day of Halloween, a 14-foot tiger shark attacked her while surfing. She lost her left arm in the accident. But made it to the hospital right in time and got back to life. She was just 13-years-old at that time.
According to Bethany, her lifestyle is something she is very thankful for. She was only five when she gave her heart to Jesus Christ. Surfing and Jesus is a combination that is fearless and unbreakable. Family support made her, even more, stronger to take up the sport professionally. It was her family who got her into surfing as she has been born and raised in Kauai where such water adventures and sports are a common sight. But, after the attack, she was totally shattered. However, her upbringing taught her to be grateful for every situation and that's what brought her hopes back to life. Only about after three weeks of the attack, Bethany Hamilton was back to swirl on the waves of the ocean! All she knew that she had a purpose to serve in life and that was to glorify the existence of God with whatever she had. She had to regain the ability and re-connect with the ocean for as long as she could.
Bethany doubted herself and even the people close to her weren't sure of what had to be done next. But she made use of every opportunity that God gave her to prove her ability. Soul Surfer is the movie based on her ordeal. It features how Bethany's journey was not easy to conquer. She had to learn to do everything differently. She lost her hope. She felt terrible, she cried, but she took life day by day. She had a vision and determination that her passion overpowered her fear. The fear of being lost in the water got overpowered by what she had envisioned for her life in the long run. She couldn't balance while surfing, her fear was like an obstruction, she had to put in thrice as much as power, she learned to paddle, she dropped into the waves and her hardships weren't so unique, but it wasn't anything close to normal either. But she chose to not compensate her situation with a prosthetic. Bethany felt that wasn't her, she didn't need something fake to bring out her reality; it just did not fit her lifestyle.
We people cannot even imagine how difficult it is to be one armed and been washed away by the oceanic waves. People like Bethany are superheroes. They are nowhere close to ordinary but so much beyond that. She chose not to survive life but conquer the same. She took her broken circumstances and build a castle with all flaws as embraced them, one at a time. She has a very beautiful take on her life - People talk bad about how a thirteen-year-old girl had to kneel before the destiny in such a brutal way, but Bethany believes that her life is unimaginably beautiful after the incident. The attack made her learn so much. She is now able to inspire a million people. Bethany is even able to travel for her competitions. Incredible!
Her faith in the supreme power kept her united with her circumstances along with providing her the perseverance and a push to reach where she is now. She did question God as to how can he let something like this happen, but in a different way - "Why did you allow such a thing to happen to me and what should I now do to re-begin the journey?" No pity party! She encouraged people in ways she hadn't even thought of.
Not only that, she is now married, has a child and is still sailing with vigor. Even pregnancy couldn't get in the middle of her way. Her husband constantly kept encouraging her for she had the spark that had to stay ignited. She credits all her wins to her husband who was the biggest support after she got married. He is a stay-at-home dad, raises the child and allows Bethany to surf professionally even after being a shark attack survivor. She is on a different journey of inspiration, “Instead of ‘Whoa, she surfs with one arm!’ It needs to be ‘Whoa, she rips, I wanna be like her!"
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