Theodore Roosevelt

The life of Theodore Roosevelt is a very interesting life to talk about. I love his story because it shows a man who knows he has health problems that are hindering his life and still fights to prosper. The purpose of this entry is to show how Theodore Roosevelt came to be President of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858 in New York City to a wealthy family. He grew up surrounded by the love of his family. Theodore had asthma throughout his life and was always a very sick child. He however did not let this illness affect his mindset. He was determined to be a strong individual. He took up gymnastics and weight lifting which helped him become strong. From then on he always found time for exercise and for Theodore exercise became a daily occurrence, from hiking and riding horses to swimming.

In 1884 Theodore experienced an extremely rough day. His wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt gave birth to a baby girl. Two days later, Theodore’s mother passed away due to kidney failure and within a couple hours Alice passed away also. Both died on the same day, in the same house. He knew he had to get out so he left his daughter with his sister and left for the Dakota Badlands, where he bought a couple ranches and lived on the frontier, taking a break from politics.

In 1886 Roosevelt heads back to New York and remarries, diving back into politics. Roosevelt was appointed as a member of the Civil Service Commission of which he later became president. In 1897 he joined the administration of President McKinley as the secretary of the Navy. He saw that the Cuban War was approaching, so while he was in office he began preparing for it. When this was broke out in 1898 he went to Cuba as lieutenant colonel of a regiment of volunteer cavalry. Also in this year Theodore was elected governor of New York.

He would have sought to be reelected for another term but the Republicans choose him as their candidate for the second office of the Union. He served as vice president for less than a year and became president after the assassination of President McKinley on September 14, 1901. This is how he became president.

His life leading up to his presidency was hard but he fought through it. His health didn’t stop him from becoming what he wanted to become. This is the reason I love his story so much, he fought through his problems and the outcome was fantastic.