YFL Essay Contest

Months before YFL Camp, an invitation was sent to enter an essay contest on what event or person we would have liked to witness or shadow from history.  The first three places received a cash prize and the first place winner would have an opportunity to read their essay at the Parent/Camper Awards Night on the final evening of camp.

Guess who won first place?

Here it is:

“Courageous Freedom”
                                                                
     “Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery,” described General George Washington. The event I would have liked to have witnessed is Valley Forge.  I would have liked to have been there to talk with the men and ask them why they kept going in those terrible conditions. I would have liked to see their unfailing devotion first-hand. They weren't there fighting for fame and glamor, rank or prestige. These were mere farmers, merchants, and statesmen who where there to fight for their children's children. They were there to fight for their rights and liberty. That's us, that's you. I would have liked to share the hardships with them to fully realize the extent that they where willing to stand for freedom.  They suffered all this for one principle – liberty. They suffered so that a man can stand on his own two feet and say, “I am free, I can choose what I want to do with my life.” They were fighting against the boot of tyranny that had grounded its heel into the backs of mankind. That is why I would have liked to have been there – to see their courage and to help grow mine in the fight for freedom.
     Their experience is relevant to us today. We can read their story and become inspired to fight for freedom. Their trial was physical and at times spiritual. We may not have the physical trials as they did, but we definitely have the spiritual. We need to reach deep down inside ourselves and ask, “Are we willing to make that sacrifice?” The sacrifice is to fight for liberty no matter what the consequences. I know that as I have read the story of those men at Valley Forge, I have felt a burning inside me that I need to do as they did. I need to fight for freedom – not for me, but for the liberty of future generations. There are countless people that could taste the same fruit we are tasting right now. Like Ronald Reagan declared, “Freedom is never more then one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
     Even today tyrants and evil men seek to destroy our freedom. We need to follow after the example of our founders to keep fighting when all seams lost, like the nine black students at Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas that where chosen to integrate. At the time of their lives when they needed to fit in the most and feel loved, they where beaten, tripped, kicked, and almost killed. They didn't go to that school for themselves. They couldn't participate in any extra-curricular activities because of the treatment they received. Years later in an interview one of the nine students was asked, “what was it like to attend Central?” Melba replied, “I got up every morning, polished my saddle shoes, and went off to war. It was like being a solider on a battlefield.” They were there for their children's rights like the men at Valley Forge.
     Both groups had vision, because without vision one could not withstand the horrific trial they endured for so long. At Valley Forge they probably thought the war was all over, but they persisted and used that trial to strengthen them and not break them. Those brave souls fought for us and suffered for us. They thought with the end in mind – the freedom of their children. I hope as today's Americans, we can be as those men at Valley Forge and never end the fight for freedom. 

On a whim I brought my essay just in case fate happened and it did. The leader was about to announce who won first prize when she added that she had forgotten to bring the campers essays to camp. Another leader piped up "he brought it with him." It was then that it hit me that she had overheard me tell my friend that I had brought mine. Wow! In a split second, I realized that I had actually won the contest.  My thought was confirmed when the announcer read my name as the first place winner.  What a thrill.

I was honored and humbled as campers came up to me afterward (some with tears), and said that they loved my essay.  The week had truly been a feast.  I felt more committed than ever to remember the influence even one person can have in the cause of freedom.