Hope by Anna

Hope by Anna - January 2018 Scholarship Essay

The word hope is taken for granted far too much in the United States today. People “hope” they are not pulled over by the police when they go thirty miles over the speed limit. People “hope” their teachers will cancel class, that they will not have to go to work on a cold rainy day, that they can make it to Chick-Fil-A before 10:30 and get chicken minis before the restaurant starts serving lunch, but when do people hope for things that actually matter?
When do we start hoping that people living in poverty will have a hot meal on their table at night? When do we start hoping that we can give up our prejudices, and start loving one another because we are on this crazy ride of life together?
When do we start hoping that a single action of our own can change someone’s life for the better

Well, I have had that exact hope inside of my heart ever since I can remember; the hope that one day, I can affect someone’s life in a way that impacts them in the best way possible.
This hope is the very reason why I have wanted to attend college for as long as I can remember, it is the sole reason that I have decided to go into education.

There is no better field of study to enter into if you wish to better the world, than education. The possibility of helping a child better themselves, and the hope that at least one of my future students will have a positive impact on the world as a whole is why I am attending college.
College is hard, there is no getting around it, and sometimes I will sit in my room and have a good cry because I think that I can not possibly do it. In those moments of doubt, when I feel like the whole world is against me and there is no possible way for me to continue, there is hope.
That little flicker of hope becomes a bush fire and rushes towards those horrible thoughts that plague my mind, and immediately burns them out. The hope sort of whispers at me and tells me that without me continuing my education, a teenager that I would be teaching one day might not have the support or encouragement that they need to go forth and change the world. It is enough encouragement to take a breath and keep going, no matter what.

Hope isn’t just a word or feeling or encouragement to me, hope is something much more personal than that in my life. Hope is my middle name, and it is a part of my name that I have never particularly liked. When I was growing up all of the girls in my classes had pretty middle names like "Elizabeth", "Katherine", "Beth" and "Grace", while I was stuck with ugly "Hope".
I even went through a period of time in Fifth Grade where I begged my mom to allow me to change my name to Penelope, simply because I thought that "Hope" just was not pretty enough.
However, as I grew older and more mature I realized just how beautiful the word "Hope" truly is; not only as part of my name, but as a reason to live. Hope will continue to guide me through college, and through the remainder of my life because I believe in it’s power to change the future.
As the incredibly talented and heartbreaking poet Emily Dickinson wrote,
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all”