Outside Reading: Week 1 - Post B

Dear Lance,

I do not understand how someone could be so driven to keep going after such a tragic event. Scarred mentally and physically, you were able to rise above it all, and learn to live. Most people would break down in self-pity. It's amazing that you were able to take that awful incident, and turn your cancer into "a special wake-up call"(5), and consider admiring that dreadful fact and living life to the fullest.
You show such dedication to your sport, and somehow i feel i can relate. "Cycling is a sport that rewards mature champions. It takes a physical endurance built up over years, and a head for strategy that comes only with experience"(5-6). You trained so hard, and worked your butt off every day trying to reach your personal goal. I feel like i can relate because if i want to reach a destination, i will not quit until i do. Also, i know your hard work pays off in the end, but i really admire how you grew up with no father and not much, and you were able to grow past that and be best freiends with your mom, and become a world-class althlete. Nothing stopped you from being who you are now, and i wish that more people can learn from you hardships, because i know i sure have already.
All in all, Mr. Lance Armstrong, so far you have made me realize how much you have been through, and i want to become like you someday. I want to learn to live.

~CEO

Outside Reading- Week 1, Post A

VOCAB!
Mesquite (16): the wood of such a tree or shrub, used esp. in grilling or barbecuing food.
Domestiques (44): A member of a competitive bicycle-racing team whose role is to assist the team leader, as by setting the pace.

APPEALS!

1.) "The truth is that cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me. I dont't know why I got the illness, but it did wonders for me, and i wouldn't want to walk away from it. Why would i want to change, even for a day, the most important and shaping event in my life? (4). This is an emotional appeal because you dont know why cancer was so good to him. You want to keep reading and find lance's journey through cancer, that makes him like it so much!

2.) "My mother and I because very open with each other. She trusted me, totally. I did whatever i wanted, and the interesting thing is that no matter what i did, i always told her about it. I never lied to her. If i wanted to go out, nobody stopped me. While most kids were sneaking out of their houses at night, I'd go out through my front door"(30). This is also an emotional appeal. Lance and his mother have a strong relationship, and i think its because its just him and her. He knows that he can trust his mom, and his mom can trust him. This is very important for when lance becomes more of an althlete, he can trust his mother to be there for him.

3.) "If it was a suffer-fest, I was good at it" (23). This is also an emotional appeal because Lance is very confident about his sports, and he basically was good at everything. This appeal also connects to how he had cancer, and he was good at conquoring it.

QUOTE!

"What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potential embarrassment, and to suffer without complaint. I was discovering that if it was a matter of gritting my teeth, not caring how it looked, and outlasting everybody else, i won. It didnt seem to matter what the sport was - in a straight-ahead, long distance race, i could beat anybody" (23). This quote is very improtant because what makes lance such a great althlete, he doesn't care what anybody thinks of him, he just goes out and does his best.

THEME!

So far, the theme Lance Armstrong's memoir is mostly about appreciating what you have, and to live your life to the fullest.