Wednesday, May 15, 2002
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Wednesday, May 15, 2002 |
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Students named finalists in Laws of Life essay contest Two Fayette students are among the 24 high school finalists selected for the third annual Georgia Laws of Life essay contest. The essays of Laura Massengale of McIntosh High and Brittany Sansom of Fayette County High were two of the 11,256 received in this year's contest and were judged the best for their individual schools. Both essays were published in the summer 2002 issue of Georgia Voyager magazine. The purpose of the Laws of Life essay contest is to challenge young people of all ages to discover for themselves the values that will guide them throughout life. Earlier this year, high school students throughout Fayette were asked to write an essay about their "laws of life" for the statewide competition. Unlike most essay contests, students were not given a specific topic to write about; instead they were encouraged to write from the heart. Massengale's piece, titled "Listen and Learn," deals with not judging people by stereotyping, but rather by getting to know them first before reaching conclusions. She outlines two situations, one with a fellow skier on a church trip and the other involving her grandparents, where she had already drawn erroneous conclusions about the kindness of people. "If every person makes his/her own contribution to life and refuses to listen to others or stereotypes others, that thwarts their melody and cheats the listener of the music," Massengale writes. "Therefore, every individual must try to see the beauty hidden in every person and listen to each person's message." Sansom's untitled piece stresses how people should be happy with the person they are and not try to change themselves to fit into a particular group. She talks about her own experiences of trying to hide who she really was so that she could fit into the most popular groups at school. "'If you be yourself, you'll never go out of style.' I read that on a fortune cookie once that I keep in my journal," Samson begins her essay. "Throughout my years I have grown spiritually and realized that for one to succeed in life and truly be happy, they must never be fake. The most important law, if not one of them, is to always be you no matter what. I would rather be hated for whom I am than loved for who I am not." Both Massengale and Sansom were honored at an awards dinner where they received a $200 and $100 award, respectively, for being a school finalist.
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