When I first started reading The Old Man and the Sea it was just a book I was going to read and not pay a lot of attention to. After the first two days I knew that doing the bare minimum was not going to be enough for this challenging book. The constant habitual need for me to look and highlight important themes and powerful sentences. This made the reading process slow and challenging; nonetheless, it was easier as I got into the swing. Time management was a helpful tool with this challenging story. It made me less stressed and helped me manage my other work. In the end it was worth it as I was finished with the challenging book and the lessons I learned will be carried with me for the remainder of my life.

Throughout the book I was looking for themes I was reading. I found that Santiago and Manolin taught me the importance of friendship and how it can shape up into better human beings. I learned that friendship is the greatest guide in life. Reading this book came with challenges. Looking for this theme was a difficult task and I was struggling with it until I read more carefully and started to understand the flow of the book.

When I first started to read this book you probably would look at me with a funny face as I would shake my head in frustration. This book was quite a challenge at first but finally that it is over it was worth the read. This book taught me to never give up no matter the challenge ahead.