A Ted of All Trades by Mary Grace

A Ted of All Trades by Mary Grace - October 2017 Scholarship Essay

“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing” according to President Theodore Roosevelt. If the accomplishments of his presidency are any indication, he took those words to heart. Roosevelt seemed to treat his years as President of the United States like any other job, something worth giving his all to, not just a chance to make this country more like he wanted it to be.
If I had the chance to have dinner with any U.S. president, I would choose Theodore Roosevelt because I honestly think we would be friends and I would enjoy hearing his stories and unique perspectives. He was the youngest person to ever become president and I believe his youth and vitality brought a new life to our government as well as enabled him to accomplish great feats in eight years.
After France abandoned the project, he took over construction of the Panama Canal, which improved international trade exponentially. One of his most remembered and impressive legacies were the approximately 200 million acres of U.S. lands that he conserved for posterity’s sake.
I would be interested to know how his time as the Vice President prior to President McKinley’s death influenced his term as president. He assumed the presidency about 116 years ago, around the turn of the century. Over salmon or venison we would discuss what life was like at that time and what was important to the American people. During the first decade of the twentieth century the United States saw a great influx of immigration. I would ask him about what that was like, both in terms of the national policies and the culture and atmospheres of large cities.
Given a chance like this, I would ask President Roosevelt about his response to Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and his efforts to reform the food, especially the meat-packing, industries. We would compare the standards and fears of the American consumer and discuss how much things can change.
What I admire most about the eponym of the Teddy Bear, our 26th president, is his incredible ability to foster compromise. The man won a Nobel Peace Prize for his effective negotiation skills which helped end the Russo-Japanese War. Beyond that, he helped improve the horrid working conditions in factories of that time.
Throughout Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency he managed to give a focus on the people of his country and work toward the goal of becoming more of a world power. It is the job of every president to balance the two opposing sides of any coin and create a compromise that is best for the country, and occasionally the world, as a whole.