An inspiring book about facing hardships
Book Review – Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea
Alone and in the elements – how would you survive?
The nonfiction book Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost At Sea by Steven Callahan was very inspiring and relatable.
The story tells about the author, Steven Callahan’s, journey in the middle of the ocean on his sailboat for seventy-six days. Though there were many trials and tribulations he encountered, his intelligence and power did not give up on him.
I could relate to a quote in the book: “This life is full of trials and tribulations, so you have to capture humor whenever and wherever you can find it.” It came to my understanding that this was relatable because, during any hardships I have ever faced, laughter was the way to go.
This book is about finding yourself and your purpose in life. Not only was it emotional, but it was real. Another quote that inspired me was when Callahan said, “We cannot grow without challenge. Challenges routinely produce crises that severely test us. However, crises also offer us the greatest opportunities.”
His experience of being stranded at sea is like our experiences as children, in life we cannot grow if we do not struggle and learn. “People going through times typically feel isolated and unsure what to do,” Callahan wrote. “When I face a crisis, I try to keep in mind a few simple concepts: we cannot control our destinies, but we can help to shape them; we must try to make like hop a bit, but we must also accept that we can only do the best we can.”
I love how he made the book give a sense of hominess. Validating people’s feelings of being disconnected from the world during hardships touched me. Something I struggle with is accepting my destiny and trying to constantly change it. Callahan reminded me that we may not be able to have the destiny we want but that we can do whatever it takes to raise the probability of encountering that destiny.
If I learned anything from the book, it is that, even during the hardest times, like being stranded in sea, all you have is yourself. Callahan had limited water, food, and shelter. Because of this, he learned to adapt, even though it cost him to lose a third of this initial body weight.
One challenge I faced when reading, however, was the vocabulary in the book and his presentation of some of the scenes because he used nautical terms and descriptions that were not familiar to me. Still I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to see a fresh way to face difficulties in life and to live through a genuine adventure.
