Three Books, One Lesson: Reading Journey 2019
Ever noticed that whenever you hear the word ‘self- confidence’, it gives you an unknown feeling that comes from inside of you that boosts you to achieve something that you are struggling with. Self-confidence is a combination of the state of mind and a strong feeling of self-belief which is most commonly used when an individual needs reassurance especially in their judgement, power and ability. In the world today, society has no room for those that lack self-confidence because there is competition in everything and everywhere. An immeasurable number of people possess it. Everyone uses self-confidence as their ladder to reach success.
Every author has been through many struggles to achieve success. But, one word that sums up their reason for success is self-confidence. Stephen King is a wonderful example of a person who didn’t let failure define him. He achieved success simply by having self-confidence in himself. He could have received one rejection and decided that writing wasn’t for him, but he didn’t. He continued to write and submit, learning from each rejection. It’s astonishing to see how a bundle of papers with ink on it has taught me the true meaning of self-confidence and how it can be used in any situation for reaching success. This is what my 2019 reading journey has been all about.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel revolves around the story of a teenage boy named Piscine Molitor (Pi) and a wild tiger and their adventurous journey in the ocean. Pi and his family decide to move overseas, after selling their zoo in India. They board a freighter with a few animals, but tragedy strikes when a terrible storm sinks the ship, leaving Pi as the only human to survive. However, Pi is not alone; a fearsome Bengal tiger has also found refuge aboard the lifeboat. As days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months, Pi and the tiger must have hope in themselves and trust each other to survive.
Any teenager in this situation would have gone crazy, including me, especially when a tiger is ten feet away from them. The disaster serves as the catalyst in Pi’s emotional growth. When Pi had a nervous breakdown, he realised the only way he could survive was to have hope in himself. By doing so, he became aware that he needs to ignore his fear for the sake of his self-preservation. He regards fear as an alive, real, present thing and discusses the destroying impact it will have on him if he allows it to consume him. He states that fear is uncivilized and has no morality, and he strongly fixes his decision to no longer allow fear to affect how he relates to his current situation.

There are some people who give up easily and others that do not. Pi falls under the category of people that will never give up. He fought and fought and fought. He fought no matter the cost of battle, the losses he took, the improbability of success. He fought till the very end. It wasn’t a question of courage. It was something constitutional, an inability to let go for him. Success doesn’t come easily, but Pi was determined to make it through his life or death situation with his self-confidence.
‘The first step to survival is to have hope in yourself’. (Part 2)
This quote may seem simple for some people, but trust me, it’s harder than you expect. Life of Pi taught me many life lessons on survival, although the chances of them happening to me are quite low. But I learnt that the darkest days in my life will not last permanently. I learnt that the days when I’m down and in a state of sorrow and despair and almost on the edge of giving up, I must remember that this stage is temporary, just like everything else in my life, and this too shall pass. I learnt that there will be times when I might seem like I have tried every possible solution and there is only a little more I am able to do. In these times, I must remember that there will be opportunities that will help sustain me, till I reach the shores of success like the flying fish for food and rain for drinking water or even the floating island for rest, provided that I don’t give up.
Life of Pi shows the struggles of a teenager and how he achieves success by believing in himself on a treacherous adventure across the sea with a wild tiger. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is a similar story but the protagonist in this book is alone in the wilderness. Brian Robeson is a 13-year-old boy who travels on a bush plane to meet his father living in Northern Canada. However, during the journey, the pilot suddenly gets a heart attack and dies. Brian tries his best to land the plane safely but ends up crashing it into a lake in the Canadian woods, where Brian is left stranded. Brian must now learn to survive alone with the help of a hatchet, in the wilderness until he is rescued.
One lesson Brian learns very quickly while in the forest is that he will get nowhere by feeling sorry for himself. He thinks of his old English teacher’s motivating words about self-confidence and determination in order to keep himself going, and this gives him the strength and outlook he needs to tackle the conflicts that constantly come in his way.
“He could feel new hope building in him … hope in his knowledge.” (Chapter 13)
Brian constantly fights emotional weakness, recognizing the need to think clearly and logically. As he spends more time in the woods, his problem solving, and brainstorming capabilities improve. He begins to overcome his natural tendency to become frustrated, understanding that he must approach each problem in a new way. While he also develops physical strength, his self-confidence and intelligence serve the greater role in his survival. Brian makes many mistakes throughout the course of the book, but when he thinks logically about how to improve upon those mistakes, he makes significant progress. Brian understands that he no longer has to look outside himself to find hope but can trust in his growing knowledge of survival. He repeatedly observes, reasons, and experiments in his efforts to survive. He trusts his instincts but isn’t afraid to learn from his mistakes, and his self-confidence increases as he learns new skills.
Take Bill Gates as an example. In a Q&A with ABC.net, Gates talks about the importance of having self-confidence. As a young child, Gates faced many problems and failed many times, and was almost at the verge of giving up, but his confidence in his abilities, made him try again and again which eventually led him to create Microsoft. “In your quest to find passion, you must tap into this self-confidence. Doing so allows you to try new things and it also gives you room for failure — a necessary precursor for success.” says Gates.

Hatchet taught me many things. One lesson it taught me was that anybody can succeed in anything if they have self-confidence. Brian had absolutely no idea on how to survive in the wilderness, but he showed us that he had confidence in himself. Although he made many mistakes and failed, he never gave up. Before reading this book, I was afraid that I will make a mistake and fail in anything I attempted to do. But this book taught me that I can learn many things from mistakes and that mistakes are not a disgrace; they are the steps to success.
When I finished reading the books Life of Pi and Hatchet, I thought that there couldn’t be any other worse possible situation a person could get stuck in. Not long after that thought, I came across The Martian by Andy Weir. During a mission in Mars, a crew of astronauts are hit by an unpredicted storm and are forced to abort their mission and return to Earth. During the evacuation, a projectile hits Mark Watney, and he is thrown away. The remaining of the crew are forced to leave thinking Mark has died due to a rupture in his space suit. However, Mark survives and now has to find ingenious ways to stay alive with the remaining meagre supplies left behind.
Mark Watney believed that he will persevere in his life on Mars by believing in himself. By doing so, he figured out how to grow food on Mars, how to travel thousands of kilometres in a modified rover, how to dismantle a rocket and eject himself into space — all completely by himself.
“He’ll pull through, Commander. Have faith … I’m not talking about faith in God, I’m talking about faith in Mark Watney. Look at all the shit Mars has thrown at him, and he’s still alive.”
Faith: one of the most important themes of the book. Watney needs to possess the most elemental kind of faith: faith in himself, in his ability to find a way home, despite overwhelming odds against him. This faith, as Martinez (pilot of Ares 3 mission) describes it, doesn’t involve belief in a supernatural power or God. Instead, it’s simply the faith in one person’s cleverness, ingenuity, and patience. Lewis, commander of Ares 3 mission, is more than willing to believe in Watney, an astronaut who’s demonstrated a powerful combination of persistence and confidence.

Watney’s defining characteristics have influenced me especially his fixed refusal to quit. Although he gets depressed at times, he then rallies himself and attempts to try something. No matter how dire the situation gets, he refuses to just lay down and die. The Martian taught me to accept bumps in the road, dreadful setbacks, and just get on with business. There are always many problems to solve in life, but we must pull ourselves together to focus on solving it. Mark Watney may be a fictional character, but the lessons I learnt from him can be put to good use in the real world. Now, whenever I’m stalled when working towards a vision or goal, I always ask myself, “How can I be like Mark Watney?”
My reading journey this year has been a true inspiration for me. Life of Pi, Hatchet and The Martian have all taught me one valuable lesson: No matter what insurmountable situation I’m in, whether it be in the middle of the ocean on a lifeboat with a wild tiger, or alone in the wilderness or even left behind in another planet with limited oxygen, it is the strength that I gather from within myself that will keep me going, not a higher power guiding me or giving me that energy. I have more courage than I know.
“But in the end, one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.” — Albert Camus
