This is the essay I submitted for the GE Reagan Foundation scholarship. Although I didn't get the scholarship, (I'm one of the 9,985 not the 15,) I really do like this paper. -Enjoy!
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You might think that any seventeen-year-old willing (or crazy enough) to speak at a large rally would want to go into public speaking, but I don’t want a speaking career.There’s so much more I want to do.
Even as a child, I wanted to make a difference in others’ lives. I was eleven when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. I organized fundraisers, and convinced my friends to send their birthday money to Christian Relief Fund for recovery efforts. It was my first experience encouraging others to work for a worthy cause, and I felt as if we were going to change the world.
I still want to change the world, one person at a time. I help care for my autistic brother, who is my only sibling. As impossible as it sometimes seems, we work toward the goal that someday he will be able to live independently. He is a reason I want to work with children who have disabilities. Specifically, I want to go into deaf education. I want to inspire the kids I work with to reach their full potential, and in turn, to reach out to others.
My cue to speak has just been given. I step to the podium, and can feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins; not because I’m nervous, but because I’m excited. I’ve been on stages before; years of competitive Irish dancing and piano recitals have seen to that. Even little performances and competitions have always made me unbelievably nervous in the past; I don’t understand why I’m so calm now. Then it hits me: this time, it’s not about me. I’m not here to win an award, or impress anyone. Today I simply want to encourage my generation to become involved. This is what I’ve wanted to do since I was little.
I volunteer for a non-profit organization called 40 Days for Life. Volunteers stand outside abortion clinics and pray every day for forty days. We pray that the abortion clinic will shut down. We pray for the women entering. We pray for the end of abortion in America. In five years, over 5,000 lives have been reported spared, and 21 abortion facilities have closed following local 40 Days campaigns. These are lives saved, and they are the reason I have chosen to take action. Even if I don’t ever know how many lives I’ve touched, if there is any possibility that I can make a difference, I’m going to do it. I cannot be silent when so much is at stake. I want my voice to be heard.
I can’t predict what will happen in the future, but these things I know: I will never join the cast of Riverdance, or wow audiences in Carnegie Hall with my piano playing. I also know that if I work hard, I can have a lasting impact in my community, and in our nation. In the movie Amazing Grace, William Pitt says, “We're too young to realize certain things are impossible, so we will do them anyway.”
My vision of calling my generation to action, and leading others in changing the world may seem unrealistic, but I know that we can limit ourselves by what we think is possible, thus never realizing our own full potential.
My leadership experience is not measured by the number of awards I’ve won, or by projects created, but by hearts and minds changed, and ultimately, lives saved.
So on this day, I stand facing the crowd, confident in the knowledge that I have risen to take action. I will keep on working because I know influence isn’t an all-powerful gun that will win the war, but the spark that must be tended until it kindles a flame in the hearts of those around us.
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