Junior Essay Contest

This is the essay I turned in for the Junior class essay contest, and hopefully it wins something. I only took about five minutes on it, and I'm really too lazy to change anything, so here it is.


This day in our age is a day of cold uncertainty. A harsh barrier of indifference and contemporary conflict separate us from each other in a world where a friendly hello from a stranger and other such courtesies are seen as mythical, rather than practical. As I look around at our community, our society, even our world, this plague of doubt and distrust has reached the four corners of the earth, casting everyone into its darkening shadow. How can one combat such an opponent as apathy and doubt? The answer may be simpler than you think. I can make a difference, I can contribute to the world close around me as well as the world encompassing us all by propagating education, extending a friendly hand to those who are struggling to stand, and by blazing my own path in this world, maintaining a fortress of upstanding values and using this example as a guiding light for those lost in the tide of today’s world.
Service, in all of its forms, sustains phenomenal results. However, the highest form of service and the greatest gift one can give is that of education. By tutoring, or supporting those who teach, I can change the very lives of those whom I have assisted. Education is the key to opportunity and by propelling forth the work of education we are advancing onto an age of enlightenment wherein ignorance is nonexistent, and along with it prejudice, for those two are one and the same.
The greatest counter against apathy is without a doubt appreciation. Extending a hand to those who need it is not enough, one must have compassion. Compassion and appreciation for those people around you is more than enough to change the world surrounding us. If I were to show unbounded love and tolerance for those I interact with on a daily basis, the positive results of these actions would be astronomical. It is possible to be friends with everybody, but sadly to find such a person is an extremely difficult thing to discover nowadays as this type of person is slowly fading into legend. Kindness works in that of a ripple effect, one kind deed will trigger another, until ripples form into waves, and we’ve covered the entire earth with this newfound harmony. It only takes one person to start such a wave.
When we look for role models and personal heroes today we all picture someone of great significance, some great person. All great people have led outstanding examples, and through this have affected thousands upon thousands of lives. Such great people are Mahatma Gandhi, who dedicated his life to the pursuit of justice through peaceful terms, and Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who gave hope and comfort to the poor and troubled of mind. Both of these men led impeccable lives, maintaining a fortress of upstanding values and standards that remain unshaken to this day, preserved in history books and in the hearts of their admirers. This is my goal, to lead an example that will remain unshaken in history, to stand as a lighthouse of truth, shining a beacon of light into the foggy mists of confusion and distrust, giving those who need a hero someone to lean on. Doing this will take astronomical effort, but I believe that the results it will bear are more than worth it.
Although we live in troubled times, there is always hope for a better future. Through these actions mentioned previously I intend to strengthen that hope, to feed it. One day this world will become a utopia of harmonious living and acceptance, and I surely do hope I have something to do with it. Through support of education, kind deeds, and outstanding examples, I believe we can change the world.