1. Courtney Webb
09/16/15
Eng 214
The adventures of The Magnificent Barbara Hillary
“True North” by Lauren Collins illustrates the journey that Barbara Hillary, age
75, took to achieve a well-anticipated dream of a lifetime. With old age, comes the
phenomenon of wear and tear. The elderly struggle with their bodies not functioning the
way it once did. Which may cause them to be opted out of the majority of high endurance
activities such as climbing, hiking for long periods of time, and towing a fifty-pound sled
to the top of the world. But low and behold Barbara Hillary, the first African- American
woman to travel to the North Pole. She is the definition of perseverance by overcoming
some of lives many adversities such as old age, funding complications, and doubts from
those around her; while maintaining an encouraging sense of humor. True North is a
well-written piece because the author makes the audience feel like they’re taking the
journey with Barbara Hillary. The audience is also able to articulate Hillary’s
perseverance and obstacles through the style of writing.
With every word, Collins began persuading me to believe in Hillary and her
journey. I began wanting to read more, it was most effective when she reports
information about Hillary’s life before her plans to go sledding to the North Pole.
According to Collins,” Hillary was a nurse for fifty-five years. ‘ I always had dreams of
travel,’ she said.” Collins illustrates Hillary’s ongoing passion for traveling and presents
Hillary as an elderly woman. She perfectly executes Hillary’s determination and
preparation to be in good shape when she travels to the North Pole. “Now she has settled

2. on a regimen of increased vegetable consumption vitamin intake, and treadmill-and-
weightlifting sessions at Cyber zone.” Collins did a remarkable job of highlighting the
many efforts made by Hillary leading up to her trip.
Hillary’s sense of humor is hilarious for a woman of her age; Collins shines some
light on some of her finest moments in the third paragraph. “ Hillary has never been
married, and, along with “ one, Mind your own business; two, maintain a sense of humor;
and three, Tell an individual to go to hell when it’s needed, “she credits her air of
youthfulness to remaining single.” This shows Hillary’s playful personality right through
the text, and Collins betrays this beautifully. Another consideration for Hillary’s humor is
in the final paragraph, “All the people who didn’t believe in me--I’d like to go to the
South Pole and give ‘em the one-two punch!” Not only does Collins highlight a bit of her
humor, but she also highlights the feeling wanting to prove the non-believers wrong,
which creates even more determination to successfully achieve the long time goal. She
made me feel like Hillary was like superwoman and she could do anything she put her
mind too.
Dreams of a lifetime always come with major cost and doubts from others around
you. Collins provides information about Hillary’s financial tactics, “ In July, she learned
that the price had risen to twenty-two thousand dollars, owing to currency fluctuations
and increased operating costs for the Russians who run the base camp.” There’s great
importance while including the increase in cost because it clarifies that it was truly an
obstacle along the path to the North Pole and expressing that she should start reach to
organizations for financial support. She even reached out to the Mayor, “Mayor
Bloomberg referred me to the Department for the Aging, which sent a form letter of

3. things I could do in the senior center, “she said. Mister, don’t you get it? If I’m going to
the North Pole, why the hell do I need a senior center?” This not only does this display
the doubts placed on Hillary because she is a woman. I articulated it, as “you don’t need
to got to the North Pole, just go to the senior center and see what need to be done there”.
The introduction and conclusion are distinct in an interesting way; both seemingly
talk about Barbara Hillary but at two different angles. While reading each I saw two
contrasted reactions, when articulating the intro that’s literally the idea I received; The
Intro purpose was to introduce Barbara Hillary to the audience. The conclusion gave me a
different reaction since now I know a lot about Hillary and I understand her sense of
humor. It includes calling out all the people who assumed she wouldn’t make it. I think
that it’s important that two key parts in an essay being different because it gives the paper
some versatility.
Overall, I like Lauren Collins style writing because she added a sense of empathy for the
audience to enjoy. The flow of her paragraphs were consistent throughout the entire
piece, she didn’t jump directly into talking about Hillary’s journey she eased the audience
into getting familiar with her first. Once the audience got to know Hillary that’s when
Collins started to bring up the journey to the North Pole. Collins style of writing would
be helpful to me because I struggle with ideas building logically upon one another,
sometimes my paragraphs have a great idea but I can’t properly build on it to make it a
stronger idea that will initially stand out. Another thing that Collins did well that I could
use in my writing to strengthen it is write about something that’s relatable to any kind of
audience. Collins showed in various ways that Hillary has showed plenty of perseverance
throughout her life and that achieve her ultimate dream of traveling. In the midst of

4. succeeding she wants to give special attention to those who doubted her along the way,
things can become difficult without a support system. Collins honored Hillary’s
perseverance through her piece, but she honored her own perseverance by allowing her
story to be told by Collins.