Earth Day Winning Essay

          I feel the warmth of the rising sun on my oversized T-shirt. My eyes are closed but I can see what I want to see. I see myself standing on the rocks of the staggered cliff, arms in the air, with a slight breeze combing through my messy brown hair. I see the Columbia River with its gentle current at the bottom of a series of large warm rocks that I just happen to be standing on. The water is the brightest, most shocking blue I’ve ever seen. I see the park, our beautiful park. And I see the world, or at least a small portion of it.

         I don’t want what I see in my imagination to fade so I hesitate on opening my eyes, but I’ve been here enough times to know that when I open my eyes, I won’t be disappointed. My warm eyelids open to see what I imagined, but better. The river is the kind of blue that makes you wonder if anything else should even be considered a blue. The large trees on the other side of the water provide just enough shade to attract a few families along the water line. Bikers and joggers zoom behind me on the public trail. This… this is paradise.

        I look down at the my torn up sneakers, and at my blue bike with the chipped paint. There is no other place on earth I would rather be. I mean the smell of a warm day is just exhilarating. The buzz of bike tires whizzing by is more than a sound, it’s a way of life, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the only life for me.

         This park, our park, in the small town of Wenatchee is my favorite place on earth. That’s why I need it to stay here. That’s why I want other people to see exactly what they imagined when they open their eyes. I want that water to stay that blue, and I want the smell of a hot day to fill the lungs of others the way it fills me with hope. I want the feeling of sun on your back to become not only the feeling of warmth, but a mindset. And that’s why I want to help in anyway I can with keeping our park beautiful, by picking up trash, encouraging others not to litter, and staying confident that we can change our world, no I said that wrong, and we will change our world for the better. So let’s work together to keep our parks beautiful, and better yet lets keep our world beautiful.

                                                                                                                        Happy Earth Day, Scarlette.

Heather Murphy, Scarlette, and Ava Izdepski pose for a photo at the Leavenworth Earth Day Community Fair.