Portales Public library essay contest results

Three Roosevelt County girls recently described their picture of America in a Portales Public Library essay contest.

As part of the library’s program “Express Yourself,” the girls read several books presenting different views of the country, said Children’s Librarian Heather Christensen. Then, they considered their own perspective in less than 500 words.

The contest was open to sixth- through 12th-graders and ran July 7-28. Three judges scored each entry with a rubric.

First Place

A Bird’s-eye View

By Megan Byrd, Floyd home school, incoming sophomore

When I look back I can remember my travels with my father in his Semi. I see things from a child’s point of view, but even though I’ve grown and learned more since I’ve been away from the road, it all seems to tell the same story. While I was on the road, I saw ninety-nine percent of America from the view of a trucks front seat. I saw what a wonderful land that we live in and how lucky we are to live in it! I saw some of the large cities such as New York and Boston and was awed by how hard mankind had to work to create such a marvelous structure. I’ve seen storms that you could not see through at all, tornados, ice, dirt, and blizzards! I saw the rolling plains of the prairie lands, the dirt roads that lead to the small towns that wrote our history. I saw people of all races living and working together and I heard the sounds of the men on the docks laughing and shouting. I’ve seen the colors of the sky in the early morning from California to Florida. I saw the mountains, beautiful and majestic, the deserts, hot but radiating its own sense of beauty. The powerful prairie lands, wild and captivating, they can and will drag you into they’re waving walls of prairie grass. America might not be a bed of roses, but who or what can say that they are perfect?

So tell me this; where in the world can you find a place just like America? Somewhere that all women are treated as equally as men, where all races of people can work and strive to live a life together in peace? A place where you can control and own your own life, and live in peace and happiness? Is there any other place like America? Peace, freedom, and happiness are few and far between in other countries. They fight for greed, treat their women like dirt, and in some countries train their children at young ages to hate and fight. Some say that America is a bad place, full of hate and crime! Compared to which country? What country does not have war, hate, or greed? But tell me which has less, and which strives to be greater and better than that hate and greed? I say America; I saw that at least America tries for peace and happiness, not war and blood.

All in all I came to one conclusion, though we are not perfect, though we may not be the brightest star in the sky, we are our own unique one, though we may never be the best, we should try never to be the worst. Some say that we are so different, how can we be one? But that is what makes us special. So my conclusion is: Through thick and thin, bright and dull, black and white, we are America!