CNN Student News: August 22nd, 2012

Last night Diana Nyad stopped her swim from the boarder of Cuba to the Florida keys. She stopped because she was struggling with dehydration, hunger, exhaustion, and jelly fish stings. She had on a suit to protect her from jellyfish but her face was uncovered and she got stung several times on it. Also there was a very bad storm and they were scared of sharks because the water got so stirred up. When she stopped she was only 45 miles away from the Florida Keys boarder, her destination. If I could ask Diana one question I would ask her what she plans to do next since she has already said she has bigger and better things to come.

Another girl has recently swam a long distance. Her name is Annaleise Carr and she made it all the way across one of the great lakes, 31 miles. Many people have swam this distance, but what makes Annaleise special is that she is the youngest. Annaleise is only 14 years old and made the swim to raise money for a children's hospital. It was said that she raised over 80,000 dollars for the hospital. I am sure that swimming across the lake was hard, but I don't think that it would be as hard as the ocean because you don't have to worry about the same kind of sea life.

The track coach at University of Texas, Beverly Kearney, faced a devastating car crash 10 years ago where they told her she was paralyzed and she would never be able to walk again. She reacted a little different than they thought she would though. When they told her that she would never walk again she said "No, I have to walk because I have to coach my team". And she did...she proved them wrong and is now walking and is still coaching the team. I think that she persevered because she was dedicated and determined. She was brave and strong through the challenges that she faced and I admire that she didn't give up, like a lot of people would have.