My Dream A Dream

“I alone can not change the world,but I can cast a stone across water to create many ripples” (Mother Teresa) shows my willingness to make a change in life even if it means I have to take it step by step. Since the age when I began to speak and walk I would always find the way to help those in need. I watched my parents struggle to pay bills and always stressing out over if we had enough to eat. Helping others was what made me feel like I had a meaning in life. It was the littlest things that made me happy from watching a baby’s laugh to feeding the poor. In eighth grade Mrs.Perez the librarian along with myself helped to organize a group which gathered donations of clothes and canned

Having grown up as an only child in a single parent home all of my life, I lived and endured a great amount of uncertainty as to who I really was as an individual during my early formative years. It wasn’t until my high school years, that I began forming my compassion for community service and being of assistance to people that had not lived as protected of an existence as I had. In my

In the middle of November, I stood in the middle of a loud and dusty warehouse. The floors were covered in filth and the room was filled with a mixed age group ranging from thirteen to eighty-five. I glanced around at all of the workers and volunteers, they were so joyful and enthusiastic. It took me all of five minutes to recognize why I was there. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children across the world. This was the moment in time when I realized just how fortunate my family was and how something as simple as a cardboard shoebox could mean so much to children across the world. Being appreciative of all that God has provided for me became very evident while at Operation Christmas Child. This was a major component of my maturity

Every day I wake up and drive through the beautiful town that I live in and I realize how much my community has helped me grow. I joined National Honor Society because I wanted to give back to my community and I wanted to prove how thankful I truly am. When I started my junior year of high school, there was a shooting at a local community college and my neighbor, friend, and teammate, was tragically killed in the shooting. The day after the shooting I promptly decided to donate blood to help the survivors, and ever since then I have been a part of every American Red Cross Blood Drive that South Umpqua has hosted. The shooting affected me so much, and it still does, and I realized that is when I wanted to help those in need; I wanted to donate

When I was eight years of age, I started to realize that there was an entire word outside of the town, state, and country that I lived in. I became concerned about the lives of others, even those that I didn’t know personally. I often thought “There are people in other countries that don’t even have enough water to live, and I am living an amazing life here in America”. Not only was I concerned for those people, but I took action to help them. It was then that I started a fundraiser to raise money for people that can’t afford the basic necessities to live in third world countries. To this day, I have been saving every penny I could afford to make sure other people can live a better life.

One of the greatest things we can do in this life is to help others. I’ve found no greater joy, than when I have been able to lift another’s burden. One the proudest achievements of my life, was when I completed my Eagle Scout project. I was able to raise money and collect items to furnish an apartment for African refugees who recently emigrated to the U.S. After a couple of months of collecting and fund raising, I organized volunteers to set up the refugees’ apartment. I couldn’t have been more proud than when I saw the family’s smiling

Everyday, I attempt to live my life mindful and considerate of others, what they’re thinking, what they’re going through, why they do the things they do, and overall, how they work. I believe that through doing this, I can gain the ability to empathize with others, and be an overall kinder human being. I keep an altruistic outlook on life: if others need it more than me, then I believe it is important to step down and let others reach the assistance that they require.

I’ve made it my mission that whatever I do, it would come from the heart because the greatest gifts comes from within. The winter of 2013, my mother and I gave our old coats to a homeless family sleeping inside a bank. Their bodies trembled on the cold tile floor as they tried to fall asleep. I remember it being midnight because there were no cars nor people on the streets of this cold winter night. They tried to make the best out of what they had which wasn't plenty. Feeling sorrow for the pain they’ve endured, my mother and I traveled back to our home and gathered items such as coats, socks, shoes, and blankets we no longer thought were useful to us. Supplying this family with the gift of warmth was the greatest gifts of all because it provided a cozy

I wake up and then I put my makeup on. I look in the mirror and clearly can see what’s wrong. It hurts to know that I can’t let my true self show. Now I know it’s time to let those so called “friends” go. We are the minority and time is of the essence so let’s act quick before we learn our lessons. When I am at school, I hear kids yell at me “you think your cool”. And then I think to myself why do people have to be so cruel? Death and being broke, yeah that’s no joke. And it hurts to say that this is happening every day. The cause of violence is not exact but that doesn’t mean go shoot someone in the back. There are attacks every day so, sometimes I just sit down and pray that the violence goes away. Watching the news leaves me in shock and,

I am a refugee. I came to this country when I was 10 years old, after having seen my own country disintegrate in front of my eyes. Regardless, I never forgot. The first time it happened was on February 2009, we were in my English class, probably learning some silly new verb, when we heard a sound that crept up my back. I still remember that eerie melody with an unforgettable macabre rhythm. I remember how our naïve gazes followed the sound to the window. I never truly forgot how everything felt straight out of an action movie, with the masked men shooting at each other and the soldiers running around helping the kids, even the gray sky matched the mood. That day changed me- it ripped my childhood away. Nevertheless, I didn’t cry, not a single tear fell from my eyes that day. Almost everyone

I wake up in the same pitch black shack that I have been living in since I was four years old. No light was ever shown. Ever since I was four I was treated differently. Everyone was separated by a tattoo with all different colors. Some people had a red tattoo,some blue and some were white but for me I was the color black. While my mom was pregnant with me she and my dad got into a car accident. They had to do an emergency C-section. The doctors said I was blessed to be alive but in reality I was cursed. I shouldn’t have survived. I escaped death. At the end of my parents funeral, my Aunt gave me a necklace that was once my mothers. The necklace could open and inside was a family portrait of us so I could remember what they looked like and to never forget them. As the years went on my color faded. I used to be purple since my mom was blue and my dad was red. When they died my Aunt took me in. She had a orange tattoo. I was considered an outlaw, so my Aunt raised me as a baby and then put me in the shack in her backyard to hide me from the government when I was only four years old. I have been teaching myself how to write, read, and basically everything I need to know. My Aunt never opens the door just in case someone would see me. So she slides food, water, clothes and books everyday under the shack to keep me alive and well. This is how my life

When I was young Dr. Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream” speech is something I heard every February and was told how beautiful it was. However, reading this as an adult who has dealt with social injustices and racism can view it differently. Do not get me wrong the speech is beautiful but I see it as a pleading with a country that will not change. This speech was written in 1963 and it was a call for racism to end in the United States. The speech is moving and Dr. King uses other well-known notions of other greats speeches like Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address. He pleads and is the voice that many could not express in the sixties. One of the lines that jumps out at me is “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the

My mother ecstatically captured these moments on camera. Five years and several vacations later, I have come to value what I have learned from these many journeys of history, politics, different cultures, and mostly my family and myself. I honestly cherish the different cultures that my mother has opened to me, my life had been transformed by what she has taught me at home. Starting at a young age, I would accompany my mother to Father Carr 's Place 2B, a local food bank. Every year we would spend our Thanksgiving as a family distributing food to Homebound people as well as engaging them in simple conversation. This did not seem like a big deal to me, but to the people needing the companionship, it was everything. From these experiences I have learned that the concept of giving to others is more beneficial to my end than theirs. Throughout my life, everything that my mother has accomplished has been eclipsed by the thought behind it. All of the experiences that I have encountered either at home or on vacation have been enlightened through her true passion for learning and devotion to humanity. Through her never ending love of everyone and everything that she has encountered, I see hope. Next year, I will be miles away, but my mother will always be with me.

The speaker begins his poem as a "dream" but "not all a dream" (line 1), immediately casting doubt upon the story to follow. The poet then imagines the end of the world through a series of natural, social, and possibly supernatural events.

My parent’s influence has helped me better emphasize with refugees and the hardships they face. One of my dads almost died multiple times throughout his escape from communist Vietnam. Many years after the escape, when I was about 8 years old, he told me the frightful story of his escape. It was horrible what happened to him. One part really stuck with me. During an escape attempt, they built a boat and tried to sail to freedom. During their journey, they ran out of food and would have died except that instead they were miraculously picked up by a US navy boat that was on patrol. Though the men who saved my family were incredible, most patrols don’t pick up escapists because it is promoted by the military to not help them. This, to me, is outrageous! They would let 100’s of people per boat continue to float endlessly until they all died! The US did this because, in law, all refugees rescued by government navy automatically become citizens due to not being able to put them elsewhere. I was surprised that the US, a country of immigrants, would let thousands die just overpopulation overflow! Though I may be fuming, it’s horrible when you let someone die for your own personal gains.