Winning Words: NJTL Finalists’ Essays
- Cameron Wilson –
By: Cameron Wilson
“POW” What happened? My mother rushed to the bathroom. My mother found my grandmother on the floor. She immediately called the ambulance to find out what was going on. She waited for the ambulance to get there and they took my grandmother to the hospital.
After that my mother called my auntie, my auntie rushed to the house in an Uber. After that, my auntie and mother went to the hospital. The doctor told my mom that my grandmothers heart stopped and they had to run tests on her. She had many tubes to help her breathe.
My mom and auntie waited in the hospital a bit and when they got back my mom told me and my brothers. I felt sad finding out my grandmother was in the hospital. My grandmother was my best friend.
She always used to tell me stories and she was very funny. We used to visit her all the time and she gave us good gifts. She always used to watch movies with us and after that we had popcorn.
A few days later, I found my mother and my oldest brother crying in the living room. I knew what happened so I started crying too. When we told my other brother, he was crying and screaming.
Losing my grandmother was very tough. She always congratulated me when I did something good and we were always together. What I learned from this is that God takes who he wants to take. He takes his time and everything coming out of him is good energy.
God loves everybody and God is kind. He is very giving, but when it is a persons time, it is there time. He has it is his heart, he is great and watches everyone. He even loves those who do not love him. I have never seen him but he is good, he is the closest thing to perfection there is. No one is perfect but he is close. He has blessed every soul. He loves everyone and everyone should love him. He loves deep and he wants to help everyone and wishes for peace on Earth.
Something that helped me a lot is the support I got from my teachers. They helped me talk about it and made me understand that I could have thoughts about it. I also have a therapist that I talk to that helps me feel better.
Something fun that I do is pray and talk to my grandmother like she is right here. She may not respond, but I know she hears me. Every night I want to talk to her. She was a wonderful person.
She used to me to be kind, she helped me with my homework and also said it doesn’t matter what other people say. Regardless if I get mad at my mom or my brothers, I still love them. They make me feel better when I am down. That is what family is about.
2. Sage Williams –
Here’s Sage’s Story-
My name is Sage and I am 10 years old. I live in Indianapolis. I love sports. My work at school is too hard. Every time I try to do it, the work makes me frustrated. I get very frustrated. I learned
that instead of getting frustrated, I can tell my teacher how I feel and then, I can go to the chill out room. It is a big room. There’s nothing in there and there’s wallpaper. I run around and play in the room, because it helps me calm down. My work is hard, because I have Autism. Sometimes, I don’t want to be called autistic, because when people say that, I get bullied. I don’t like that word. To me, Autism is fine. I just don’t like bullying. I want bullying to stop. Autism is a different ability. Life is about how great you are. Who you are is about loving and caring. It’s about caring and loving
your family. I learned about Autism from my teacher. I learned that I am different. I like that I’m different. I have a unique personality. I’m very smart. I’m very intelligent and very wise. I have friends and they like me. It does not matter if others do not. I love myself. I care about myself and I’m capable. I’m smart and I now get all my work done very quickly.
I also have learned that I am a good basketball player. I like to shoot from very far from the basketball court. Now that I know more about Autism and how to handle my feelings, I know that I have so many special,
different abilities.
3. Elijah J. Wimberly
Cochlear Implant Disaster by Elijah J. Wimberly
I was born deaf in both ears,and I use cochlear implants to hear. One night I fell asleep with my cochlear implants on. That was bad because I need to charge them every night when I go to bed. When I woke up, I saw that it was on the table. But then I made a terrible discovery. It didn’t have its clip on! At first I thought that it just came off. I looked around it and under the table. No clip. I looked under the bed. No clip. I searched all around the room we were in. No clip. This was bad because we were supposed to leave my great grandpa’s house that day. Finally I told my parents. Boy were they mad. They helped me look for it and then said I had to pay $100 to get a new one. From that day on, I knew that I should take better care of my stuff.
WHAT I LEARNED:
My first problem happened when I fell asleep. I had my cochlear implants on which started
this whole mess. I have to remember to charge my cochlear implants EVERY night so this sort of thing doesn’t happen. My second mistake happened when I actually lost my cochlear implant clip. This leads to panic. So if I don’t want to run all around the house, I should keep track of my things.
HOW CAN I APPLY THIS TO OTHER SITUATIONS IN MY LIFE:
Responsibility: If I get something like a new jacket and wear it to school,then I need to make sure that by the end of the day I bring it home with me.
Honesty:Lets say I forgot to do my chores and my dad asks me if I did them or not. If I’m honest then I tell him that I forgot to (you’re probably still gonna have to do them).
Accountability: If I eat candy and I’m not supposed to and my mom asks who ate the candy then I would have to take full accountability.
Consequence: After all that accountability and stuff there might be a consequence for your actions. It might be, no screen time, no candy, or even time out.
Helpful:If you see a person who maybe needs help picking up something they dropped, getting back up, or finding something then go ahead and help them.
Disappointment: Let’s say you have a math test coming up you study hard but still fail. You might get a feeling in your body. Meet disappointment (luckily, you still have another chance so cheer up!).
Bravery: Yay it’s your first time on a diving board! You get a tight feeling in your stomach, but you still go for it! You met bravery
Resilience: You just got in trouble for eating the candy. Your mom sends you to your room. You’re stuck there. But then you start to think positive! Soon you’re happy knowing you won’t do it again.
4. Jayce Carroll
My mom signed me up for tennis lessons to learn how to play. I was nervous and didn’t want to go. My first time was very hard and I got frustrated. I had a hard time with forehands, backhands and getting the ball over the net. It was not easy.
After a few weeks I finally did a forehand and a backhand over the net. I started playing games with other kids. When I won a game, I was very happy. Sometimes I lost but I didn’t get mad. Win or lose it was OK, maybe next time.
I started practicing hard and listening. With training, I was getting better and better. I was almost the best player in my group. I received an award for most improved player. I learned not to quit when it gets hard. What’s more important is to have fun and play the game.
5. Peyton Hampton
I feel like these are very complex questions because there is not one correct answer because people much like fingerprints are all VERY different from the next. One instance I can think of that really stands out to me is when I lost my first tennis match and it was very discouraging and really took a stab at my self-esteem because it was one of the first matches I played and if I lost this one, I felt than this could set the base for a tennis career I decide to pursue in the future. All of these thoughts went through my head. And for some time after that loss, it made me not even want to compete anymore. And this loss dug extra deep because we traveled two hours away to lose. It feels like I traveled all this way for disappointment and that can be really hard on how you feel about yourself. This made me feel like everyone was depending on me and I let them down by losing and letting myself down. Another instance I could think of that stands out to me is when I went to my aunt’s house and what was intended to be a happy and fun filled day turned out into something different that ended up a trip to the emergency room for the first out of two times that week. Everything was going perfectly until my knee got caught in a wicker basket and it sliced 3 inches down my knee and I had to go to the emergency room and then not even a week later I got stabbed in my eye by a straw and landed me in the emergency room for the second time in a week. All of these instances are not ideal for me but they happen and I had to build around them. Even though these obstacles were placed in my way I still had to adapt and learn. I learned from losing my first tennis match that not every game I play will come out with the outcome that I want but as long as I do my best, you can do nothing but learn from that point on. I learned from splitting my knee that I need to be more conscious of my actions and my surroundings. I learned similar things from the straw incident, such as I need to keep straws away from my eyes (joke to kinda lift the mood). Every situation has something to learn from every single experience and you can also learn from MANY different sources, like adults can learn from kids and even babies and vice versa because nobody is too smart to learn from anyone. Everyone can learn from anyone.
5. Dana Roman
The Move That Changed Me
“Catch the ball, Dana!” yelled Jason.
“Okay!”
I, in fact, did not catch the ball.
“Come inside, guys!” says my grandma, who I call Lela.
“Okay!” we yell as we run inside, giggling—not knowing that soon we would be torn apart.
A week later, my grandma tells me that we are going to move to my mom’s building (which she owns). At first, I am super excited that I will be closer to my mom since she is a 45‑minute drive away. But then it hits me. What about the home I grew up in? What about my friends? What about my family being closer to me here? What about Jason, who I’ve had in my life since I was a little girl? What about my popularity that I had as a 4th grader for being kind and sweet to everyone I knew?
I hadn’t noticed that the house was getting emptier and emptier each day. I was just a kid who still hadn’t understood what moving would change for me.
My last day of 4th grade was horrific. I was crying all day with my friends, and at this point in time, I still hadn’t realized that I wasn’t going to return next year to that very school. When I finally found out, I begged my mom to let me go back to the same school, but she said it would be a whole hour away. To cheer me up, my grandma promised me one last play date with Jason. That was the only thing keeping me going. To just have one last play date with my best friend meant the world to me. To be able to have one last goodbye was everything to me.
Until… it was time to move. The day I had been dreading the most—the day where I would have to say goodbye to the home I loved most.
My mom’s best friend, Patrick, helped us load all of our belongings into the U-Haul truck. Patrick and I have an amazing bond and friendship, which made me happy to know that I had a friend in this tough moment. As we drove away, I looked back into the side mirror to have one last glance at my old house. I then realized that I never had a chance to say goodbye to Jason. My grandma had completely forgotten about our play date due to all of the stress that was upon us.
I was heartbroken, but I didn’t want to add more stress to the pile of stress.
When we got to my new house, I almost cried. I never got to say goodbye to Jason, but I kept it together and said, “It will be okay.” And it turns out, it was okay. I made a new friend named Mariajose, but she later moved to Russia. That’s my story. I haven’t seen Jason since, but it turns out that everything will be okay in the end.
6. Darius Thurmond
Everyone faces tough times sometimes.
Hk: one time that didn’t go my way, was when you go through something that is hard that’s not fair and didn’t go my way is where someone has more than you have that was not fair.
Like it was better than the things I have. I was negative, sad,unhappy, along with being questioned all the time so I had time to think about where I come from and what I still go through. That still hurts to see I wish I had that, and materialistic wealth.
But the truth I’ve come to realize is to be grateful for what you have, and thankful for ruff over my head, and food in our stomachs and clothes on our back.
And having a hardworking mom that stays up all night, and being smart,knowledge,potential,
Along the way. And having to deal with hurt, and pain along the journey has given me patience,and courage, so with all those tough times I turn it to a better perspective of myself. Ive choose happiness over everything,to make it go away and make me a stronger person such as giving me responsibility and overcoming the difficulties of hardship, and having to deal with it. And having someone to talk to about what I have succeeded and overcome to prove myself a better resource to other along the way and make them feel good about themselves
So I’ve become intelligent, hardworking,1%,and doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. And having a ton of respect to the people whose needs. And building resilience , and having a positive mindset. And I learn to acknowledge the situation even when someone says something out of mind. I learn to maintain a positive attitude by implementing these activities and learn to adapt,and always being open about the things I have on my chest.
