Both Jake Olson and Misty Copeland persevered through many difficulties and challenges to be ‘like everyone else’. Jake Olson is a college student who unfortunately lost one of his two eyes as a young baby, and lost his other eye when he was twelve years old; as a huge football fan, especially of the USC Trojans, this was a devastating loss, and Olson could no longer play football that easily. Misty Copeland is a thirty-three year old ballerina whose race and age made becoming a principal dancer extremely difficult. Through much dedication, Olson was able to overcome physical, mental, and social barriers to become part of his high school football team; Copeland was able to overcome physical, racial, and aged barriers to become a principal dancer …show more content…
Olson lost both of his eyes due to cancer, but at different times. He wanted to watch his favorite team, the USC Trojans, play as much as he could, as he had much interest in watching, and playing football. After his sight was ‘stolen by cancer’, he desperately wanted to play football, Even Olson’s high school coach told him he had to earn his spot. Even if progress was slow, as Olson could not be shown how to throw correctly, “Olsen practiced relentlessly and over time the speed and accuracy of his snaps improved enormously” (2), which led to Olsen becoming a “first-choice long snapper” and winning the starting position. Copeland, on a similar note, also had to overcome a physical challenge: career-threatening fractures. She had to have surgery on her left leg in order to mitigate the severe plan about three years ago. Unfortunately, it has “...been three years and [she is] still not jumping fully” (3). This means she must dance many difficult steps on her injured leg, even if it still hurts her. Even though she suffers every time she performs “Swan Lake” or “Firebird”, she puts on a beautiful, effortless, ballet performance. Both Olson and Copeland were able to overcome their physical barriers to become a ‘first choice long snapper’, or a ‘principal