ON THE LINE BY SERENA WILLIAMS

Source

Today is about On The Line by Serena Williams with Daniel Paisner. Published on the 1st of September 2009, this book is a memoir of Serena Williams life and career back then.

She wrote about her life while growing up in Compton, one of the baddest neighbourhood in California. About her childhood, how growing up was with her 4 sisters before death took her oldest sister. She was known as Yetunde and she was a victim of a gang tragic shooting. To been trained by her father on a dirty public tennis court filled with broken glasses.

She explained how her success has not been without her personal struggle with : recovering after losing her sister in a tragic way, how she was been chastised about her approach to tennis. Yet, through it all, she prevailed.

Lessons from the book:

• This book taught me determination and grit. This was shown in serena, no matter how down she is in a match to the point of losing, she comes back stronger in the next. Her strength and sheer guts is always in display in every of her matches.

• Family is everything: For Serena family comes first and you can see this in every area of her life especially between her and Venus. They help each other weather the storm they encounter in the tennis world. She learned the power of love and trust among her siblings

• Pick your fight: She taught me through this book that it is better to fight for something than to fight back at everything. Sometimes in the process of fighting everything and everyone, you lose more than you gain. Put all your strength and ability into your passion and craft, sooner than later your success will speak for itself.

• Social Issues: In this book, she also talked about issues like poverty, sickness and political conviction. She wrote about how it took her a visit to Africa to reawaken her sense of pride in winning after the death of her sister. The ability in wanting to do more for people in need helps push her harder into her success. Sometime when we feel like giving up, we should remember the ones counting and depending on us to succeed so that we can help push them to the top too.

In this book, Serena pointed out how she has had to live her life with a valid dream even when her parent did not believe in her, and only her faith and hope helped a little 8yr old Serena justify her passion to her parent. She has experienced loss, depression and even death in other to learn repentance and be the woman she is today. Her family became her life line when as a champion whose back is constantly pushed against the wall.
Above all I learnt that personal conviction helps inspire the spirit of champion in Serena and it can help us too.

Image 1 source
Image 2 source
Image 3 source