With no wetsuit, Nelson completed the swim against 12 mph winds, an incoming tide and 66 F ocean water with a total time of seven hours and four minutes. Wetsuits not only serve as a tool to warm the body in cold water temperatures, but also add a small amount of buoyancy which can greatly assist in open water swimming. All of these factors on top of the great distance Nelson covered in the water is hard to fathom, but Nelson simply said, “A recon Marine would rather die than quit.”

Celebrities are successful people due to their talents, but that shouldn’t exempt them from legal penalties or a lack of healthy coping methods. Not many of us can account for what the entertainment industry is like on the inside, but we can see how much it factors into a person’s image. This year’s Oscars only remind us of why putting celebrities on a pedestal does no more good than bad. In acting this way, we are disregarding the fact that celebrities are normal people, just like us. We can still admire and appreciate their talent, but we should never forget that they’re humans, with personal struggles, who have the capacity to act in both good and bad manners. Smith’s assault on Rock is as much a cautionary event as it is a controversial one.