Wolaver Places in Writing Contest
St. Francis freshman Dylan Wolaver recently was notified that he placed in an essay contest. Dylan's writing was done as an assignment in Mrs. Gibson's English class. The essay assignment was to describe an example of courage with the obstacles encountered that would describe a person as a hero.
The contest was sponsored by The Writing Conference Inc. There were 182 entries in the contest. In the exposition writing, Dylan received third place out of 47 entries. There were 15-20 different states represented. The first place winner was from Denver, Colorado, and the second place winner was from Columbia, Missouri.
Mrs. Gibson replied, "I am very proud of Dylan! This essay is definitely written from the heart. He shows a strong example of courage. Hopefully his essay can be example for other teenagers that with courage and faith there is hope for a better tomorrow."
He will receive a plaque commemorating his essay, an invitation to attend The Celebration of Writing Reception on Wednesday, April 21 in Ottawa, KS, and will have his essay published in The Writer's State, an on-line journal of writing for students and teachers. Dylan's grandfather will take him to Ottawa for the presentation.
Dylan's essay is below.
My Childhood
In your childhood have you ever had to live in a household surrounded by smokers and drug users? Have you ever had to move from place to place every year so your parents wouldn’t get caught by the police using drugs? Have you ever seen your mother go into shock because she has epilepsy? I have lived through all these situations. I even got abandoned by my mother at age seven and spent two years in a foster home. It took a lot of courage to live through these situations. In this essay, I will let you look into my life and see the kind of courage I have used to get through my dreadful childhood.
Everyday after elementary school I would walk into the place I was living in and wonder if I was going to eat that day. Sometimes I didn’t have anything to eat at home that night or the next day. Yet I still found a place to eat whether it was at my friend’s house or at a neighbor’s house.
There is one thing that still bothers me as a teenager is when my mother would go into shock because of her epilepsy. If you have ever seen someone go into shock because of epilepsy, you would know how bad it is. I would not even wish that on my worst enemy to have to see that.
When I was five, my father was arrested and put into prison for the third time in his life. This was not good for him because he had to serve a longer prison sentence. He was arrested for the possession of drugs and theft. This just left me living with my mother. Today my dad and I keep contact with each other through letters and phone conversations.
When I was about seven or eight, I was abandoned by my mother and put into a foster home. This is what I would consider the turning point in my life. I no longer had to walk into the house wondering if I was going to eat or be around the drugs. There was one drawback though. When I was abandoned, I had a severe case of depression and had to go to counseling for several years.
Since I was adopted by my grandparents in 2004, I have been a very happy person and leading a pretty successful life. It took a lot of courage to live through what I have lived through. With courage and determination you can live through just about anything. Do you have a story of courage and determination?
