Live Deliberately Essay Contest: Past Winners
| 2011 Winners Participate in this year's contest! | |
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The 2011 essay contest asked students to respond to this quote from Thoreau's Walden:"In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness." |
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Anne Wu, age 19 ....She would tell me about dark, cold mornings when she would wake up before everyone else to cook rice, a chore assigned to the eldest child. I would ask her if she hated those lonely mornings, but she always shook her head. She cherished these quiet hours, a time for hushed contemplation and deep meditation....Everyone reacts to the same hunger and everyone is someone’s child. Living a simpler life is all about perspective. Each person is on a journey that is guided by his or her own set of universal laws, but those long, quiet mornings are embedded in everyone’s lives. They are just waiting to be discovered and treasured. read more |
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Veronica L. Alvarado, age 18 My world is dominated by this instantaneous access to others – their thought, their feelings, and their actions. How am I ever supposed to discover who I truly am when my life is bombarded constantly by other people? Knowing that I was to write this essay, I decided to embark on an experiment. I am an avid runner, who daily exercises with several fellow runners. For the purpose of my experiment I decided to run by myself for a week, in the early hours of the morning, to ensure that I did not encounter anyone else. The alarm clock sounded on Day One of my trial at 5:15 am.... read more |
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Jackie Roche, age 17 ...so, for a month, I stayed away from anything with a lit up background and keys. In a sense, I retreated into the wilderness of modern society: the unwired....Because I gave up so much screen time, I was able to spend my time after homework thinking or reading. I read Jane Austen; I tried new recipes. Sometimes, I even went outside and took a nap in the sunshine. I would press my ear to the blanket, listening to the faint sounds of the moving dirt. The hum of the insects and the flow of the grass would lull me into my daydreams. read more |
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Kathleen Costello, age 17 |
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Minna Wang, age 15 A long, long time ago, there was a little girl who wanted everything. She knew what she wanted to be when she grew up – rich, famous, and married to the perfect boy. She wanted everything, from a huge mansion with a spiral staircase, a huge close, and a pool, diamonds and a pony. She wanted money and fans. Some us would call her shallow, but please remember that she was only a child. read more |
| 2010 Winners | |
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The 2010 essay contest asked students to respond to Thoreau's famous call to live deliberately: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." |
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Elizabeth Hull, age 16 When I was little, my mom and I would go outside into the afternoon sun. With a plan in mind and the sun in our faces, we began to plant our garden. It was such a wonderful world for me. Nothing could compare to...read more |
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Cameron Shorb, age 16 The hallways of school were once a place for routine and tedium, until the day they suddenly seemed a vast Victorian garden, each of the bobbing heads of the masses a finely pruned topiary bush. I had left a young thought...read more |
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Rhea E. Fowler, age 21 |
