There is... nothing greater than touching the shore after crossing some great body of water knowing that I've done it with my own two arms and legs.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the satisfaction and pride of achieving a significant challenge through personal effort.
Diana Nyad's quote reflects the profound sense of accomplishment that comes from overcoming a great challenge, such as swimming across a vast body of water. It emphasizes the importance of hard work, determination, and resilience, showcasing the joy and fulfillment that arise when one reaches their goal using their own strength and capabilities, ultimately highlighting the journey as much as the destination.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire students to follow their dreams.
You have a dream and you have obstacles in front of you as we all do. None of us ever get through this life without heartache, without turmoil, and if you believe and you have faith and you can get knocked down and get back up again and you believe in perseverance as a great human quality, you find your way.
In swimming, especially training out in the ocean and open water, you got fogged-over goggles, you're stuck with your own thoughts - there's great benefits to that, deep thinking like that after many hours, but there's also tremendous loneliness. You burn out. You want to run, jump, ski, do anything. So at age 30, I was finished.
Every human being on this planet has their pain and their heartache and it's up to all of us to find our way back to the light.
I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level.
I swam. We made it, our team, from the rocks of Cuba to the beach of Florida, in squeaky-clean, ethical fashion.
I grew up in Florida, so you start swimming at the age of 1, really. By 10, I was competitive swimming, and by 12, I had aspirations to be the best in the world.
I was there. I saw your sons and your husbands, your brothers and your sweethearts. I saw how they worked, played, fought, and lived. I saw some of them die. I saw more courage, more good humor in the face of discomfort, more love in an era of hate and more devotion to duty than could exist under tyranny.
I'm not ashamed to dress "like a woman" because I don't think it's shameful to be a woman.
I am kind; I am humane. I open to you my fatherly arms. Come, all of you; I will receive you all - no less those of the South than those of the West, and of the North, who, gained over by Rigaud, have deserted your firesides, your wives, your children, to place yourselves at his side.
I don't have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I'm happier now than before I developed the condition.
You got to be brave. If you feel something, you've really got to risk it.
What is a rebel? A man who says no.
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