IMAGINATION MAKES POSSIBLE TO HEAR THE GREAT SYMPHONIES OF LIFE (Artist)

"Do you need to achieve your most ardent desires, and end up succeeding"

                                                                                          Ludwing van Beethoven

Early Life

On December 16th, 1770, in a small town of Bonn in Germany, one of the best composers of the history was born, Ludwing van Beethoven. His parents were: Johann van Beethoven (1740-1792) of Flemish origins, he was a mediocre court singer better known for his alcoholism than any musical ability and Magdalena Keverich van Beethoven (1744-1787); she was a slender, genteel, and deeply moralistic woman. Beethoven had two younger brothers who survived into adulthood, Caspar, born in 1774, and Johann, born in 1776.

Beethoven's father and grandfather were musicians themselves, so, the first music teacher of Beethoven was his father. First, he taught to play de piano, violin and clavier when he was just 4 years old, after people recognized Beethoven as a "great child". At age of 8,  he gave his first public performance where it was his first step to his career when he was 12 Beethoven was consider a great interpret because he became an assistant organist for the Prince-Elector orchestra he began to love to be in a musical environment ( Favorite-classical- composer). When he was 17 he composed his first three piano sonatas for that reason, since his earliest day Beethoven was a prodigious talent musician to ever live. 

In 1787, Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he studied with Joseph Haydn, there he developed a great reputation as an amazing composer and impressive violinist at the same time demonstrated his talent for the music. But unfortunately when he was growing as a popular person, he returned to Bonn because his mother died. After this tragedy he took the responsibility to take care his younger brothers and his father, for that reason Beethoven stayed in Bonn for the next five years.   

Greewing Reputation 

During he take care about his family, he never lose contact with important people because he wanted to came back to musician environment. After his father died, he did it.  So, he involved as a composer in the middle period, he was viewed as a transitional figure between the Classical and Romance eras of musician history; it was an important period for his and his career. The biggest example of this is the Third Symphony, called "Eroica (Italian for "heroic"_ which he dedicated to the Corsican revolutionary leader Napoleon Buonaparte. (Biography) 

Other some important pieces include: fifth Symphony, Six Symphonies (Nos. 3-8), the last three piano concertos and his only violin concerto, six quartets (Nos. 7-11) many pianos sonatas (including the 'Moonlight', 'Waldstein' and 'Appasionata') and Beethoven's only opera Fidelio (8notes).

Beethoven became to gain people whit his beautiful art of the symphonies. In fact, the beginning of his reputation grew in this period because he was shocked the entire world with his greatest compositions.

Disease and Death

Beethoven as all people had troubles the last years. He was only 26 when he started suffering from hearing disorder (Tinnitus). He just could listen the sounds with one hear, so, he faced a lot of difficulties in listening to music. Nobody knew the cause of his deafness. Beethoven fell into depression, he wrote a letter to his brothers where explained the condition where he was living. 

Beethoven never married, it was said to be in love with a woman who was already married, but nobody never knew the name nor more about this woman, it can be said that this was the most tragic period for Beethoven, he felt that his whole career was coming down, he went into an uncomfortable state where suicide was his first option because he felt that his life no made sense. 

But then, he was helped by books where he was reported as a disease break and focused on how to move forward after hearing loss.

His conversational books preserve dialogues between he and his friends (they wrote what they wanted to say in these books as Beethoven could not hear them anymore). These books also give us valuable insights into how and what Beethoven thought about music on the whole and his compositions, in particular. (buzzle).

Beethoven learned to listen just with the imagination, he imagine all notes of the sound and continued composing. He regained the strength to keep going, does not let defeat and returned to compose, and, it was during this time that he created the famous and most important event of his life, the 9th symphony which generated a great impact to the world as his fame was much larger being deaf. Unfortunately, during his last years of life, his situation was terrible, he became ill with gout, rheumatic fever, and a variety of other illness. He had four stomach operations and after that, died in March 1827.

A person who loves what he does never gives up.  Life is short, and the best way to enjoy it, is doing the things that we like.  We as people know that life is full of obstacles and our mission is to overcome them. A disease is a test that God puts us, and we have to find ways to face it. There is no greater satisfaction than to see our dreams come true and never forget to have a great imagination because imagination can makes possible to hear great symphonies of life.

By: Daniel Villatoro

LIVING WITHOUT LIMITS (Free Biography)

“There comes times in life when there will be several violent storms and you may not be able to curb them, as often as they are going to come. But God is there and that’s why I can be here and smile to you.” - Nicolas James Vujicic

Different but special

Nicolas James Vujicic, better known as “Nick” is a Serbian Australian evangelist and a motivational speaker that has no limbs. It was on December 4, 1982.  Where his parents; Dunska and Boris Vujicic, noticed the lacking of limbs on their son, Nick had borned with a rare disorder called tetra-amelia syndrome. This syndrome consists in the absence of all four limbs, but in the case of Nick was different, because he borned with two small feet, one of which has two toes. This made life very hard for Nick, but he came to terms that ‘God had a good purpose for him’ and after that, he decided to be a motivator for the others. And even in his condition, Nick took the decision of keeping optimism.

Becoming self-sufficient

 Getting into a normal school was another problem for Nick; he was supposed to assist to a special school because of his condition, but besides the lacking of limbs, his mental capacity was normal. After too much looking, a Victoria state law prevented Nick from attending a mainstream school. He was happy to be soon incorporated in the school and make new friends, but his lack of limbs made him a target for the school bullies, and he fell into a severe depression. At the age of ten years old, Nick contemplated suicide in a horrible way but thinking about his parents’ love, he desisted. He started to thrust in God and by that way, he renovated his thoughts again. During secondary school, he was elected captain of McGregor State in Queensland and worked with the student council on fundraising events for local charities and disability campaigns. (wikipedia)  His academic years were culminated in the Griffith University with a double major in accountancy and a financial planning. The way in which Nick became self-sufficient was quite emotive, he used to pray very hard asking God for giving him arms and legs, but one day, his mother showed him a newspaper article about a man with a severe disability, and realized that he was not the only one.

Motivating the others

Then he found down how to live a full life without limbs; he could write, use a computer, answer the phone, brush his teeth and even comb his hair. Nick went against the people’s expectations and looked  for more. Of course, it was not easy to do it but he had two important things; God and his parents who were always there to support him.  Nick passed a lot of difficulties during his early years, all those things contributed to his formation and became in a motivational speaker. He started his own non-profit organization called Life without Limbs. Nick presents motivational speeches worldwide. He also speaks about his belief that God can use a willing heart to do his work. Traveling internationally and focusing on teen issues. He speaks to corporate audiences, congregations, and schools. But this is not all his work; he is also the writer of the book, Life without Limbs: published in 2010. He marketed a DVD for young people titled: No Arms, No Legs, and No Worries. If this is not enough, Nick is also the main character in the short film The Butterfly Circus, which won the Doorpost Film Project’s top prize of 2009. (hubpages)  Vujicic has now formed a new family, he married his fiancée, Kanae Miyahara, on February 12, 2012, and Kiyoshi James Vujicic, which is their son, was born on February 13, 2013.

Nick Vujicic is a great example of how face a problem no matter if it is a physical condition or a mental one, with effort and determination we can do whatever we want. So if he could triumph in his life successfully without limbs, why not we having all our limbs.

By: Sara Marroquin      

       Isabel  Diaz

       Mirna Reyes       

       Stefany Reyes

       Daniel Villatoro

TRIUMPHING OVER OBSTACLES (Literary)

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quite. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”                

                                                                                                                                     Hellen A. Keller

Keller’s Chilhood

Hellen Adams Keller was born on June 27,  1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her parents were Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller. Hellen was the first of two daughters; her father served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and then became the editor of the North Alabamian newspaper. After two years Hellen contracted a wear illness called scarlet fever or meningitis, which consisted in a high body temperature and unfortunely let her blind and deaf for the rest of her life. Hellen’s childhood was quite hard, she was almost seven years old when started to behave in a wild way; she used to kick, scream and make tantrums on her parents, she was frustrated because of her condition. With the time, she developed a method of communication using more than 60 sings Hellen and her companion, Martha Washington, the young daughter of the family cook, could communicated each other. (helenkeller)

Education around Keller

But even being blind and deaf, nothing could stop Hellen’s desires of keep forward in life, with her parents’ help she could find an adequate teacher for her. Of course, was not easy to find it, they went to different institutions before met Anne Sullivan, a recent graduate student from the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. Anne Sullivan immediately started to work with Hellen, she began by teaching Hellen finger spelling. At the beginning Hellen was curious, but then she got frustrate and stopped cooperating. Time later she started cooperating and Sullivan noticed that she was not making connection between the objects and the letters spelled out in her hand, and decided to move away from the family in order to make Hellen focus in her instructions, making at the time a big progress on her. In 1890, Hellen began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. From 1894 to 1896, she attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City.

Contribution to the society

Then in 1896, she attended the Cambridge school for Ladies where Keller began to meet famous and influential people. One of them was Henry H. Rogers, who agreed to pay for her to attend to Radcliff College. (famouspeople)

By that time, Keller mastered several methods of communications; touch-lips reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger spelling. Then, with the help of Sullivan and her future husband, John Macy, she wrote her first book, The Story of My Life. Keller later graduated from Radcliff in 1904, at the age of 24. Next year, her instructress married John Macy, an instructor of Harvard University. Anne and John became distant to each other and after couple of years, they separated. Keller was very active inside the society; she always tried to help the others. In 1920, she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1924, she became a member of the American Federation for the Blind. She also joined to other organizations dedicated to helping those less fortunate. Was in 1936, when her beloved teacher and devote companion, Anne Sullivan, died. After that year, Keller was appointed counselor of international relations for the American Foundation of Overseas Blind, traveling to 35 countries and through her speeches and appearances, she brought inspiration to many people. During her lifetime, Keller received many honors and recognitions for her accomplishments; The Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal in 1936, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and many others.

Finally, Keller died on June 1, 1968. But this amazing woman shows us the power of having faith in ourselves and keeps forward no matter the obstacles that life could bring to us; we never have to give up! She fought against her condition and never showed weakness, instead of that, she showed optimism and perseverance.

By: Stefany Reyes

OVERCOMING THE ADVERSITIES. (Athletic)

“I am no different; I happen to have no legs”…

                                                                                       Oscar Pistorius

Chilhood Problems

Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was born on November 22^nd , 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Son of Henk and Sheila Pistorius; Oscar was the middle child of three. His family, while prominent in South Africa, was largely middle class. (biography.com). his childhood was shaped partly by tragedies because his parents divorced when he was 6 years old. Later his mother died when he was 15, as a result of drug complications. (wikipedia).

Physical Health

Pistorius was marred at birth; he was born without a fibula in either of his legs; his parents got the difficult decision to have their son`s legs amputated below his knees just before his first birthday (biography).  Pistorius was walking successfully with a pair of prosthetic legs. His handicap hardly slowed his large interest in sports, which spanned from cricket to wrestling to boxing.

It was not until he was 16, and, in need of a sport that could help him rehab a knee following a rugby injury, that Pistorius was introduced to track.

Trajectory

His rise in the sport came quickly. In January 2004, he competed in his first 100 meter race; eight-months later pistorius wearing a pair of flex-foot cheetahs, a light-weight carbon fiber foot; he captured the gold medal in the 20 meters race at the 2004 Athens Paralympics (oscarpistorius.biography).But the artificial legs of pistorius have been a source of controversy throughout much of his athletic career.

In 2007, the International Association of Athletic Foundations, the world wide body that governs international competition, banned pistorius from competing, stating that his artificial legs gave him an unfair advantage over able bodies’ athletes in the competition. Along the way, pistorius, who has been nicknamed “Blade Runner” and has been called the “fastest man on no legs”.

He got 3 gold medals at the 2011 IPC athletic world championships. He has gotten many others titles at the large of his life. He became the first amputee athlete to compete in the Olympics (es.wikipedia.org)

Pistorius was accused of killing to his girlfriend Reeva Steen Kamp`s in February 14^th, 2013, because he confused her with a thief (noticias24)

Pistorius admitted unintentionally shooting Steen Kamp at his home on Valentine’s Day.

He was guilty and he went to prison but later he was acquitted under free conditional, paying a surety of $113,000 by lack of proofs (according to Beeld newspaper).

Oscar pistorius is a good athlete; we need trust in ourselves and do not abandon our wishes.

We have to fight hard in life, it does no matter if we have any physical incapacity, because our brain is in perfect conditions.

                                                                                                                                    By: Isabel Diaz

STEPHEN HAWKING TAKES ADVANTAGE OF ADVERSITY- (Scientific)

 “I got an Education there that was as good as, if not better than, I would have had at Westminster. I have never found that my lack of social graces has been a hindrance”, a highlighted expression of Hawking, a model of overcoming, and professional development, despite of his disability.

Was born in Oxford (Great Britain) on January 8, 1942, being the oldest of four children, his parents were Frank and Isobel Hawking Hawking. He married twice, first with Jane Wilde in 1965, who had three children with, and with his nurse Elaine Mason on September 16th, 1995.

A model of overcoming

Progress in intellectual activity has not stopped despite suffering from a degenerative neuromuscular disease.

Fame of school does not determine success.

In 1950 his parents moved to St. Albans, where he attended the Institute for Girls in St. Albans (which admitted boys up to age 10 years) and 11 years changed to the namesake school, where he was a good student but not brilliant.

At first, Hawking wanted to study mathematics at the University, inspired by his teacher, but her father wanted him to agree to University College, Oxford, as he had done. In the absence of a math teacher at the time, the college did not accept students of that discipline, so Hawking enrolled in natural sciences and got a scholarship.

Illness is not obstacle

Stephen Hawking is severely disabled as a result of their disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which did not prevent him from maintaining its high scientific and public activity. The first symptoms of the disease appeared during his stay in Oxford and finally he was diagnosed with ALS at age 21. At that time the doctors predicted he would not live more than 2 or 3 years (average survival time of the disease), but for unknown reasons, is one of the few people who has survived many more years, even suffering the gradual advance of the disability. (history)

Professional Development

In High school Hawking was not an outstanding student, however, he decided to study mathematics and physics at University College, Oxford, where he earned his degree in 1962 and his doctorate in 1966 at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Scientific Researches

He focused his scientific interest in the field of general relativity, particularly in the physics of black holes. In 1974, according to the predictions of quantum physics, he proposed that black holes emit subatomic particles to deplete their energy, to finally explode.

Among his publications are: The Large Scale Structure of Space-time with G. F. R. Ellis, General Relativity: Review on the Centennial of Einstein with W. Israel, and 300 Years of Gravity, with W Israel. Stephen Hawking has published three popular books: his bestseller A Brief History of Time (History of Time: From Big Bang to black holes), Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, in 2001. The Universe in a Nutshell, in 2005; and other important researches. (biografiasyvidas)

Recognition

He was elected to the Royal Society that same year, three years later; he was appointed professor of gravitational physics at Cambridge, where, two years later, he obtained the Lucasian chair of mathematics, like Isaac Newton.

On August 12, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama delivers the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 There are buildings that have been named in his honor: the Science Museum Stephen W. Hawking in San Salvador, the Stephen Hawking Building in Cambridge, and the Stephen Hawking Centre at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada. Also at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, University of Cambridge, it was unveiled a statue of Hawking by Ian Walters, on December 19, 2007. (wikipedia)

Stephen Hawking is a clear example that a person’s success does not depend on the place of origin, or institution where he or she has been educated, but on the effort and wish that each one has; likewise, physical limitations caused by a disease must not be a getting stuck reason. It must be taking into account Hawking's words, when he said: "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change."

                                                                                                                                  By: Mirna Reyes

EFFORT DESTROYS THE OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS (Historical)

“If you have the motivation, you can do incredible things”…..

                                                                                        LOUIS BRAILLE

Louis Braille, French, who was born on January 04^th in 1809; his parents were, Simon Rene Braille and Monique Baron. In his childhood he suffered a minor accident in a saddlery shop where imitating the work of his father, injured his left eye with an awl, a pointed tool for piercing holes in leather or wood (notablesbiographies), and soon after a sympathetic ophthalmia an acute infection of the eyeball or the membrane covering the front of the eyeball (braillebug) led to loss of vision in his right eye; it was the cause he became totally blind.

The little braille with only seven years old began a life with many obstacles; his parents feared that their son for his disability would not achieve his goals in life.

THE SCHOOL

Braille despite of his physical condition he believed in his potential and he wanted to learn many things. He got a scholarship to study at a school for blind people. He was an intelligent guy and everyday he made the effort to get more knowledge even though the school gave a hard learning a discipline.

There, students were taught how to read by feeling raised letters, a system devised by the founder of school Valentin hauy (ideafinder). Despite of the deficient system, because students only could touch the letters but they were not able to reproduce it, Braille developed the habit of reading, and he got a talent for music.

CREATION OF A SYSTEM

In 1821, a captain named Charles Barbier visited the school; Barbier invented a system called “Sonography” or “night writing” which consisted of embossed symbols used by soldiers to communicate silently at night on the battlefield.

This one captured the attention of Braille; and since this day he thought that the system was too hard to learn and had some problems. He started to work on simplifying it.

He developed an ingenious system of reading and writing by means of raised dots (louisbrailleschool) and later, he extended it including notations for mathematics and music.

RECOGNITION OF THE  SYSTEM  AROUND THE WORLD

At age of 17, Louis graduated from school and became a teacher at the institute, and secretly taught his method because the school did not accepted his system; he shared it with his friend, there was a satisfaction about the excellent system, and they began to use it.

After years Louis Braille got tuberculosis, and he died on January 06^th , in 1852 at the age of 43 (access-usa) pleased confident that his mission on earth was completed.

Two years after the death of the inventor, his system was recognized and started to be applied around the world. In 1952, the 100^th anniversary of his death, in his honor, the French government moved his remains to the pantheon in Paris where his body rests with other great French heroes.

Despite of his physical condition, he battled against adversity to achieve his goal. Braille a fighter who leaves a great message; we need to believe that we have the potential to do many things without thinking about the obstacles our life presents, just we need to take into account that to accomplish our dreams requires willingness and confidence in ourselves.

If you want to achieve something do not stop to find how many disabilities you have; it is the moment in which you have the opportunity to see that you can do it.

By: Sara Marroquin