Helen did very little in her life for the first seven years. She lived in a world of silence and darkness. She rarely traveled and she spent most of her time at home. She had interaction with very few people in the early years of her life.
When Miss Annie Sullivan came to be Helen's teacher, the little girl's world changed for the better. Miss Sullivan taught Helen how to communicate using the manual alphabet. After this, the world seemed to open up to Helen. In a little over ten years, she traveled all over the country and to Canada. She visited oceans and cities. She met many famous people and took up a variety of activities. She lived a life of fullness. Helen described this in her autobiography, The Story of My Life:
The treasures of a new, beautiful world were laid at my feet, and I took in pleasure and information at every turn. I lived myself into all things. I was never still a moment; my life was as full of motion as those little insects which crowd a whole existence into one brief day. I had met many people who talked with me by spelling into my hand, and thought in joyous symphony leaped up to meet thought, and behold, a miracle had been wrought! (Chapter XI)
Helen crowded her life with experiences in a short amount of time. She compared this to insects who live their entire lives in a day.
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