I used the story of Gertrude Ederle to encourage and inspire my speech therapy clients in the pursuit of their speech and communication goals. See below pictures of Trudy with her bathing cap, swimming laps, leading the largest sports victory parade in NY. Read the story and be inspired as well!
"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Wishing all my readers the best of luck in pursuing worthy endeavors and achieving your highest aspirations and dreams!
Once upon a time, there was a brave woman named Gertrude Ederle. She loved to swim more than anything! The biggest dream she had was to swim across the English Channel. That's a super-duper big stretch of water between England and France, and it's very, very cold!
Lots of people thought it was too hard for a girl to do, but Gertrude didn't listen to them. She practiced every day, splashing and kicking and getting stronger and stronger. She even put on lots of grease to keep her warm in the chilly water!
Finally, the big day came. Gertrude jumped into the water and started swimming. Hours and hours went by. The waves were big, and the water was freezing, but Gertrude kept going. She thought about her family and friends cheering her on. She thought about her dream.
After more, than 14 hours, Gertrude finally reached the other side! She was the very first woman to ever swim across the English Channel! Everyone cheered and celebrated. Gertrude showed everyone that with courage and practice, you can achieve your biggest dreams!
To help you understand how far Gertrude swam, let's look at a graph! It shows the difference between swimming from New York to New Jersey (which is like a little hop!) and swimming across the English Channel (which is a super-duper long journey!).
