American Shaolin: Prompt A

A theme in the book American Shaolin by Matthew Polley is if you have faith in yourself you can do anything. In the beginning the book starts out with a teen ager who has a low self-confidence. He believes that he is a nerd and cant do anything right in life. He believes that he is not going to get any where in life. Therapists after several attempts couldn't help him. He had lost all faith in himself. Later an unexpected journey came in his life in which he had to go to China. There were several risk that accompanies this trip to China: new environment, low amount of money, no parents to help. As he thought more about this trip and thought about all the risks he got more faith in himself. He thought that he could over come all the risks that will come his way. As he got more faith in himself he found that he was crossing off things from his list, "Things that are wrong with Matt." When he got to China he was challenged by the people in the Wushu Center (the place where he learned Kung Fu). He toke lessons on the Kung Fu and as he practiced them more and more, he started believing in himself more. This determination and confidence allowed him to cross even more things off the list. The list was full of things, yelling low self-confidence. Examples of things on his included never being able to learn Kung Fu, considering himself as a kid rather than the nature status of a man, and being a nerd. As he got better at Kung Fu his faith started growing, and he started believing. Later he end's up crossing every thing off the list and becomes more self aware. His faith changed him for a teen with no faith in himself, to a man who is now ready to fight whatever the world throws at him because he has the faith in himself.


There is this great article by Matthew Polly, the author of American Shaolin. In this article Matthew talks about his inspiration for writing this great book. In this article Matt also tells us a little about the 3 vows the Shaolin have to take. Inspiration

This video was taken by Matt Polley. In the video you can see Matt's coach doing some basic Kung Fu drills