Good Life Award - Winners
2007
Good Life Award Writing Contest
Honorable Mention
Ari Hassett
7th Grade, Incarnation School
| "A Good Life" Imagine you’re an ant, a small, black, helpless, ant on the streets on Chicago, the busy, bustling, loud, scary, mean, streets. There are cars, bikes, shoes, strollers, to sum it up, giant, moving things that could evaporate your being in the blink of an eye. The only thought in your simple ant brain is to survive. Eat and run. Don’t get squished and hide. You’re a minuscule black dot in a sea of giants. Can you relate to this at all? Does this sound at all familiar? The cars and strollers, the bikes and shoes, can represent your school, your family, sports, or other extra curricular activities… all the things that make up your life. These are the things that way you down, stress you out. And at times scare you. Many of your trials in life, like the busy streets, are not going to go away any time soon. You can feel as if you’re trapped in the middle, and lost. You need a plan. To survive this stressful life you need to know at least in what direction you want to go. You need to think about your future. Goals and dreams are very important. Don’t let them get run over by a car or left a block behind. Let’s say you dream to be an Olympic athlete, work for it and don’t give up. Challenges will only make you stronger and more sufficient. School can be boring and drag on forever, although if you work hard and do well it will pay off. Someday you will be able to have that perfect job. If you can’t think that far into the future then you will be able to look at that report card or test and say I’m going somewhere. It is very important for you to keep your friends close. Be kind to them, listen to them, and help them with their problems. No one can get through this life alone. Even if you could it is nice to have someone to talk to along the way. I have a magnet on my fridge that has some good advice on it. It says: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” We all have challenges and things we dislike. Life is hard. Just have fun, work hard, be positive, don’t give up, love, relax, be happy, watch, listen, try, and live. If you do something with your life and make small changes. If you have a plan you can hopefully leave this world having left a mark on it. |