Every Scar on the Body (4A08)

Date: 22/11/2022

Book Title: Every Scar on the Body (身上的每道傷疤) - Sarah Lee Wai-Sze

Author: Sarah Lee Wai-Sze

            Good morning everyone, the book I want to talk about today is "Every Scar on the Body" (身上的每道傷疤), by Ms. Lee Wai-Sze Sarah, a Hong Kong cyclist.  This is her memoir.

             When you hear the name Sarah Lee Wai-Sze, what do you think of?  A legendary women cyclist? A world champion who has extraordinary talents or a girl who loves bicycles so much? After reading this book, I believe you will have a new understanding of her.

            This book recalls and records her eighteen years of cycling experience, and it’s all written by Sarah.  She is very straightforward in the book, and her emotional expression is very impressive.  Unlike ordinary autobiographies, this book focuses on how she overcomes sadness and pain in her lift and how she overcomes psychological obstacles to become a world champion.  Sarah's tone of voice is sincere, and she records her feelings very effectively, making readers feel what she was feeling at that time, with a unique style of writing.  After reading the whole book, you will find that this girl has only one burning goal in her heart: to be an excellent Hong Kong athlete.

            After each chapter, there are cycling knowledge quizzes, explaining the cycling system, rules, requirements, so that readers can better understand this Sport.

            The book is divided into five chapters. Sarah uses the scars on her body to lead readers into her athletic career. She discusses the history of her injuries, the places where they happened, the situation, the treatment after the injury, and also her psychological changes.  Readers can enter her inner world, so that they can understand the pain and feelings of Sarah. 

The chapter that impressed me the most is “Stubborn Hands”.  Sarah starts the book with a critical matter, accompanied by a lot of disappointment and crying.  On April Fool's Day in 2006, during training in the Mainland,  Sarah accidentally hit a dog, and broken hand. At that time, she didn't take it seriously, thinking that it would recover soon, so she insisted on continuing to practice with difficulty, ignoring the worsening injury. After returning to Hong Kong, she found out that the injury was serious and immediate surgery was needed. The situation was very critical. The doctor said that if the surgery was not done immediately, the hand would lose its function permanently, which made Sarah feel helpless and confused.  She could only follow the doctor's advice to have the surgery, but unfortunately, the operation failed. Sarah's hand showed no signs of improvement. She had to keep returning to see the doctor and performing operations again and again, but her hand still could not return to normal function.

During the period of injury, Sarah was unable to practice with other Hong Kong team members as normal but had to stay alone in the camp for hands-free training.  This made her feel extremely lonely, the training became boring, the feeling of being abandoned by her teammates filled up her heart. The most anticipated and happiest moment every day was having dinner with her teammates.  The loneliness after the operation made her feel tired and emotionally unstable, and she yearned for the life after recovery day after day, year after year.  But of course, Sarah is an ordinary person, not a superhero, she will also complain about what she has experienced. During that period, the dream of cycling in Sarah's heart was eroded by injuries, her sky became dim, and she cried every day in front of others, becoming more and more confused about the direction of training. Her emotions were adversely affected. Sarah felt that the cycling road was getting more and more difficult, and even planned to give up. Her friend told her: You love cycling so much, if you give up now, you will regret it in the future!  These words made Sarah, who was at rock bottom, regain her strength, her determination and set a goal. She has experienced uncountable pain, so she is no longer afraid of it.  She succeeded with her training with hands that could not move normally, and won many medals in competitions with her scars. She is respected and appreciated.

Sarah's career as an athlete has not been smooth. It can be described as extremely rough, with lots of difficulties. There have been many ups and downs, including family blame and disapproval, friends of the same age who advised her to quit the team and take a second path.  But she made it through one by one step at a time. With her amazing power and love for cycling, she has achieved what she is today, a brilliant world-class cyclist.  Behind success, there are always scars.

After reading the whole book, I was very touched.  Sarah faced pressure and doubts alone and worked hard towards her goals at an age when she should have been having fun. Even though she fell down many times, and even faced critical moments in life, she  got over them.  Repeated adversity did not knock her down but made her even stronger.  Sarah's spirit of never giving up is what we must learn. We must not advoid from difficulties. Hong Kong students are under a lot of pressure to study. What we need is Sarah's mentality of facing difficulties, trying to find solutions, and running towards the goal with determination, in order to succeed.

 "Dreams and pain follow each other, I often tell myself that I can't stop, and I can't let the pain destroy my dreams." This is my favorite quote from Sarah.  Even though she faced lots of pain, her vision was not blurred, she was unstoppable moving towards her goal.  Every scar on Sarah’s body is a milestone in pursuit of her dreams, like a long

 staircase, which took her step by step to the top of the cycling world. Finally, she won the key to the door of her dreams.  The countless scars are the evidence of Sarah's unremitting efforts, which make her shine brightly.

 I recommend this book to everyone who is struggling for their dreams who may be going through hard times. I believe this book can encourage you to move forward.

  This is the end of my book sharing. Thank you  for your listening.

Postal address : 2B Tai Cheong Street, Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong E-mail : school@hkcwcc.edu.hk Tel : (852) 2568-4817 Fax : (852) 2568-0336

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