Three Cups of Tea

An Ordinary Hero

Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin work together to tell the tale of how an average Joe puts the 'ordinary' in 'extraordinary' in the nonfiction book Three Cups of Tea. It is a true story that narrates Mortenson's life from the end of one adventure to the beginning of another when he undergoes an epiphany with the help of little school children in Pakistan. He arrives in Pakistan with a dream of reaching the top of the treacherous K2 Mountain, rests in the small village of Korphe with a sense of failure, and leaves the country with a new life goal: build a school for the poor children he befriended. On a day just like any other, Mortenson takes on a one man mission to promote peace... one school at a time,” (Mortenson, cover). He shows that ordinary people can change the world as long as they simply do not give up after failure, gain awareness for their cause, and try to effectively get along with people.
Failure is something that everyone has experienced at one point or another during their lives, no matter who you are. It can cause a wide range of negative feelings but it also enables us to learn from our mistakes and grow as individuals. Despite all of his great accomplishments, Mortenson is no stranger to failure. After his sister Christa's untimely death, Mortenson sets out to honor her memory by leaving her bracelet at the top of one of the highest mountains, K2. He is determined and gives it his all, but exhaustion, dehydration, and an injured friend get the best of him and he is unable to complete the draining journey.   He does not sit around and mope, however, and finds a way to replace his feelings of failure with a new way to honor Christa's death: build a school for the kind children of Korphe who helped nurse his spirits back to life. It is a promise that would change his life, and generations to come, forever. Thirty schools and many years later, Mortenson looks back at K2 and thinks to himself “Here was his failure... So why... [continues]

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