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Man of the century, Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt must be examined from the beginning since it is paramount to understand the man and his values, which is the foundation of his persona. Born naturally is a testament to the man and how he approached life and public office, tough, straightforward, and honest. Though this is a broad statement Theodore Roosevelt throughout his life overcame some enormous odds to succeed. As a child he was a sickly delicate boy suffering much from asthma and frequently had to be taken away on trips to find a place where he could breath. On one such trip, the first taken by himself, he met two boys his own age that immediately took advantage of him because of his smaller stature and somewhat of a naive character. He tried to defend his sense of honor but was unable to do any serious damage due to his lack of physical abilities. Armed with this knowledge he went to his father and obtained permission to take boxing lessons to improve his fighting abilities which, resulted in little improvement after several years of lessons (Theodore Roosevelt 2). Nothing unusual about this type of treatment or attempts to better his fighting skills but, he was able to recognize his short comings, which is amazing due to the fact most people are unable to get past the indignity of being the brunt of a joke not to mention having the self discipline to continue his endeavors of boxing knowing he was not very good at it. Scholastically he was home taught developing a passion for reading, especially scientific adventures. Unfortunately, his home teaching lacked extensive mathematics and social studies, which became apparent when he was enrolled in school and required a tutor in these fields of study. Overcoming his lack of formal education he graduated from Harvard College twenty-first of one hundred seventy seven (Roosevelt, Theodore 3; ch.1). Remarkable, to be able to succeed at such a prestigious institution with seemingly all the cards stacked against him, re-enforces his ability of self-discipline and the tenacity to succeed, an internal drive of stability, sustained by his own will and confidence of himself. Though his early teachings were lacking a definite structure, lessons in life - indirect as they were - more than made up for academic shortfalls.
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