Warming Hearts by Siobhan

Warming Hearts by Siobhan - April 2023 Scholarship Essay

Siobhan - April 10, 2023

I turned my tassel on my flat black cap, adorned with white plastic flowers I’d purchased at the Dollar Tree and hot glued to the top. I made it. Four long years of high school behind now, and the world awaited me. It didn’t look daunting, the way my parents had described. It had its arms outstretched, warm and inviting. Opportunity lay behind every corner. I felt ready. I had been equipped for this.

Hope and excitement surged in me as I repeatedly smiled for the camera and accepted my diploma, signed and approved. I was ready to change the world. I was ready to make a difference. The only things standing in my way now was this silly little problem called “time,” and this overwhelming issued called “money.” Oh, if they weren’t roadblocks at all, there would be no stopping me.

I would use my newfound love for philosophy to chat with the person seated next to me on the plane. I ask them about their life and find out what’s keeping them here on this earth. I use my writing skills to relive that conversation, adding color in the form of adjectives. This story about this philosophical conversation 30,000 feet in the air then travels from person to person, from heart to heart, until it lands one day in the hands of the governor’s wife.

She reads it aloud to her husband as he falls asleep. His heart is warmed. The next day he thinks on the debate as he drives to work, and talks about it with his secretary who has a copy of the story on her desk. The more he thinks about it, the more he feels it impacting his decisions. He is reassured. The daughter of the secretary finds it when she visits her mother after school. Her heart is warmed. She too, is reassured.

With unlimited time I would write a million of these heart-warming, reassuring stories.
With unlimited money I would distribute them across the face of the globe.
Once every ear has heard and every heart is at peace, then I might be content.