Dare To Dream

• Kelsey Schipp, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2009

Finally! All my hard work has finally paid off. It has taken me years to get here, and now that I finally have, I couldn't be happier.

It all started when I was about seven years old and I heard Martin Luther King's speech "I have a Dream". It was that speech that inspired me to be what I am today.

All through my school years, I was teased and taunted for my aspirations. Everyone knew what I wanted to be, yet no one had any faith in me whatsoever. I didn't even get support from my family. No one believed.

As I got older, more and more people tried to drag me and my dreams down, telling me that I needed to come back to Earth. But I was already there. I told them, "I WILL do this." I didn't care if they believed in me or not, I only cared about what I believed in.

I must admit, I had my doubts. When I first got into the business, I had a lot of people laugh at me and make jokes at my expense. I remember once, when I was about twenty-five, I wanted to commit suicide. I had just had enough. Enough of everyone telling me that I wasn't good enough, and that I was a failure. I called my Grandmother, and she said, "Son, what's happened to you? Where's that seven year old boy who listened to Martin Luther King's speech and said, "I want that." Where is that boy?"

It was that call that saved my life. I owe so much to my Grandmother, and it makes me so sad that she couldn't see me today and say, "I knew you could do it. I just knew it." But I know that, wherever she is, she is looking down on me and smiling.

When I first met my beautiful wife, I knew she was the one. After talking with her for a mere two hours, I knew that I wanted to marry her and spend the rest of my life with her. We did get married and now we have two gorgeous girls.

When I embarked on this journey, I never realised that my greatest wish could ever come true. I never realised that my dream, which was squashed from when I was seven years old, could actually happen forty years later.

I have met some of the most influential people in the world, and now, I am one. People will look to me for wisdom, for leadership, for guidance. They have already looked at me with hope, and with dreams, and I have delivered. I have been tried for the first time, and I have NOT been found wanting.

Who would have ever thought that I, Barack Obama, an African-American, a Negro, would one day become the first ever black president of the United States of America? Who would have ever thought that I would someday end up as someone's hero?!