champ

My little sister Tracey recently competed at State UIL Ready Writing. She's an amazing writer, but more importantly she is a very amazing person. I'm really really lucky to have her as my sister. Saying she's in her own world is a glorious understatement. She is very convinced time does not exist. Anyways... I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate me writing a biography on here so I'll just say she's an inspiration.

So in Ready Writing you choose between two quotes for a writing topic, you get two hours, and you go.

Here is her essay:



Long Awaited Moment

America has come far from the face of the tired and determined immigrant worker. The new generation of America stands with fresh faces and carefully cultivated minds, clearly stated rights and vast sources of information at their fingertips. Greider suggests that this generation, in the new millennium, is called to change America. Since its beginnings, the United States has dreamed, crossed bridges, and spotted new ones on the distant horizon. As Greider says “The United States is not a finished story.” This is the generation that must cross new bridges and barriers and bring the people closer to history’s final pages.

Greider muses about the challenges on America’s horizon with a dual sense of hope and trepidation. He states that the United States is “…profoundly troubled in new ways.” Yet some of America’s most pressing problems are very similar to the difficulties faced by Americans throughout the country’s history.

Dominant in the American mind today is concern over the economy. With the collapse of the housing market, the sharp falls of stock on Wall Street, and the initiation of the phrase “bail-out” as a household term, a quiet fear creeps into the homes of American families. The people’s fears were swiftly acknowledged and calmed during the 2008 presidential election—yes, the economy is of the utmost concern, the politicians assured them, but this is only a recession. Regardless of party affiliation, however, Americans are by no means completely mollified. In spite of all the new legislation and bail-out bills, the initial fear that stole into the homes of the people lingers, nestled in the shadows, surfacing in dinner conversation and rising in the thoughts of parents drifting wearily to sleep. The Great Depression resurfaces in the people’s memory, and the mantra “it won’t happen to me,” begins to wear thin.

If economic insecurity were not enough, America also faces a trouble seen by all countries throughout history—issues of national security. The controversy of the War of Terrorism endures even after the exodus of the unpopular president George Bush. The situation in the Middle East is by no means stable, and questions arise over issues of torture and plans of action for Guantanamo Bay. A new threat also looms on the horizon; Korea develops and tests more and more missile technology, and the American people are left to wonder when this ‘research’ will become action.

Finally, the United States confronts another major issue warned about by history. After developing so many grand technologies and luxurious cars, the world begins to realize that fossil fuels are in finite supply, just as decades ago people realized that the oceans were not so bottomless and infinite as they imagined; Earth is not vast enough to swallow the all of the bitter waste of the growing human population. In America, a sweeping Green movement rises to the challenge. The energy crisis is discussed as thoroughly in the American home as the economy, and recycling begins to make a rapid comeback.

These are the issues that loom in the fore of the American consciousness, the issues that largely determined the 2008 presidential election. However, these issues are not entirely new and original. These issues are not the factors that define the moment described by Greider as “a great turning point in the national story, unlike any that occurred before.” The true problems the new generation faces are questions of ethics, not survival.

Chiefly among these concerns is the role of science. Since the beginning of his time on earth, man has sought to control and change his surroundings. For centuries man mused on the great possibilities of science. This issue has been explored thoroughly by literature, as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein explored the ramifications of man discovering the secret of creation, and men like Ray Bradbury dreamed of fantastic new technologies and how they would affect the world. Bradbury’s statement “Science fiction becomes science fact,” proves to be true; in the past, man dreamed, but now he stands on the precipice of discovery. Stem cell research, cloning, and genetic engineering are no longer mere possibilities, but probabilities and capabilities.

“The Unites States today is fabulously wealthy, awesomely well armed, and abundant in goods and pleasures and power,” barring worldwide disaster and Armageddon, America will most likely maintain her position of power. The true question is, what will she do with this power? In the past, questions of ethics have been debated calmly, subjects for the musing of philosophers far removed from immediate issues. Ultimately, the general public dismissed the issues with that popular phrase, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Now the new generation stands at the edge of discovery, at the edge of action. Greider states “We have a chance to dream. I think we have an obligation.” America, though facing economic instability and issues of limited resources, indeed has a chance to dream. Moreover, America has a chance to act. With all the wealth, arms, goods, pleasures, and power accumulated by the United States, the question must now be asked: What will this country do?

America, the time has come. You are crossing the bridge.



So much to her suprise, she won! My dad now simply addresses her as, "Champ."