Tow #2 - To Infinity and Beyond

            This week I read “To Infinity and Beyond!” by Christen Press.  Christen Press is a star soccer player for the Chicago Red Stars and the US Women’s national team- not your typical author.  For what credibility she lacks from a professional stand point, she more than makes up for in life experience.  She has overcome many obstacles in order to be where she is today; she had to play soccer in Sweden for a few years, learn a new language and culture, because the US women’s soccer league folded.  Her path to greatness, her journey, is reflected in her writing.  This specific article was found on her blog (footballschristenpress.blogspot.com) and is about the idea of being elite.  I read this article a few months ago and it has stayed with me since then.  I reread the essay, and I remember why it is so powerful: the rhetoric used by Press.  Press writes a compelling essay about how she attempts to pursue greatness.  She uses many rhetorical devices to argue her essay.  Press writes:

“I have a weakness. I never feel like I’m good enough. 

I’ve set tangible goals throughout my career. And I have attained a lot of them. Still, I’m sure that achieving will never satisfy my hunger to achieve. 
Last month, Clint Bruce -- former NFL quarterback and Navy Seal Commander -- spoke to the USWNT about what he calls “pursuing elite.” Among the tokens of wisdom and experience he offered, one thing really hit home for me. “Elite is this land that is fit only for the restless,” he told us.

While I don’t know if I exist in the land of the elite, I’m definitely on the battlefield with restlessness. My restlessness leaves my mind racing as I try to wind down at the end of mandatory recovery day. It keeps me tossing after poor performances. And if I played well, well…playing well makes me itch to play better; there is always room for improvement. This process can be exhausting.

I have a strength. I never feel like I’m good enough.”

She uses similar sentences structure at the beginning and end of this passage.  This use of parallelism is incredibly impactful on the reader.  The reader has one impression early before reading the middle two paragraphs and a completely different impression afterwards.  She juxtaposes the two different aspects of never feeling as though she is good enough and provides the pros and cons to each.  This comparison is powerful because it in some ways inspires the reader; Press takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster, starting with a weakness and ending with a strength.  This organization causes the entire paragraph to end on a high note and become inspirational.  If Press had talked about the strength before the weakness, the reader would have been left with a sour taste in his or her mouth and not the inspiration that was intended.  Press appeals to pathos of the reader with inspirational paragraphs like these.  Because of the emotional connection she establishes with her audience, I believe Press is successful in her writing.