You Are Worth It: Building a Life Worth Fighting For *Very Good*
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Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 9780062898548
Type: hardcover
By the youngest living recipient of the Medal of Honor, an extraordinary memoir with crossover inspirational appeal of a remarkable U.S. Marine who selflessly jumped on a grenade to protect his brothers in arms while fighting in Afghanistan, then relentlessly battled back from catastrophic wounds to reconstruct his life and motivate others.
“I want my story to help others see what’s extraordinary in themselves.”—Kyle Carpenter
On November 21, 2010, Marine Lance Corporal Kyle Carpenter was posted on a quiet rooftop in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when he heard the unmistakable skitter of an incoming grenade. Kyle’s post that afternoon, with fellow Marine Nick Eufrazio, had been eerily quiet; now, with no time to escape and their lives in peril, they had to make a split-second decision or both would be dead. Before Kyle knew what he was doing, he jumped on the grenade. His vision went blank, his entire body numb. He tried to move but could not. It felt as though warm water was being poured over him; he dazedly realized it was his own blood.
That instantaneous decision saved Nick’s life, but nearly cost Kyle his own. The explosion took his right eye and most of his face from the nose down. It would take dozens of surgeries and almost three years of hospital visits to rebuild his body—and from there, his life. Over the past five years, Kyle’s achievements have been astonishing: he’s undergone extensive physical rehabilitation, graduated from college, and embarked on a career as a motivational speaker. In 2014, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama.
In You Are Worth It, Kyle recounts his service in Afghanistan, the event that transformed him, and its aftermath. Yet this book is more than a memoir of war; it is a paean to the values that make America great and a call to service, encouraging readers to do more for those around them. Organized around the credos that have guided Kyle’s life (from “Don’t Be Afraid of a Little Elbow Grease” to “Call Your Mom”), You Are Worth It encourages us to be better, and teaches us about finding meaning in a life of serving others, despite the significant challenges that may arise. Kyle writes, “You are worth it. You are. You are worth protecting, you are worth fighting for, you are worth time in a hospital bed and deep scars on my body because you, the people of Afghanistan, and people around the world, have inherent worth as human beings, and if we don’t spend our time on this earth looking out for one another, what does any of it matter?”
A moving tribute to service, faith, and freedom, illustrated with twenty-five color photographs, You Are Worth It is an extraordinary memoir from an exceptional American leader.
