Optimist winners

BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
Is there a fine line between optimism and reality? Nathan Dimmer, Clarkston High School sophomore who earned first place in the Clarkston Area Optimist Club Oratorical Contest, thinks so.
“There is a fine line between optimism and reality, because when we act on our optimism, we make it a reality,” Dimmer wrote in his essay. “When we use optimism to view the world, we can see what is possible, what we can achieve, and what we can make a reality. This summer is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and with it, we not only celebrate the successes that came from optimism, but also use it as motivation moving forward. If we could use the power of optimism to land a man on the moon in the 1960s, what new accomplishments could we achieve with it today? By using our optimism, we can overcome the fine line separating our dreams from reality, and transform the world of today, into a better reality for the future.”
Trevor Myers, senior at Everest Collegiate High School who earned second place, found no fine line between optimism and reality.
“In fact, optimism is reality,” said Myers in his essay. “If each person acts optimistically, then the whole world would be a better place.
“Optimism, perhaps the most important thing in creating a positive world, is not something too hard to achieve, rather a mindset and goal each person can yearn for. While keeping your mind and attitude positive and also highlighting the ups of each situation rather than the downs, optimism can and will be reality for all people.”
Grace Miller, Everest junior, earned third place, saying optimism is what drives us to believe that reality can be shaped into something better to begin with.
“This is not to say that we are to push aside all suffering and pain and simply pretend that it doesn’t exist, but rather, that we should see it, recognize it, and take hold of it, then do everything in our power to be rid of it,” Miller said in her essay.
“So yes, there is a line between optimism and reality, however, it is more important that we walk that line between being optimistic and overly so, rather than give up on optimism altogether, for it is optimism which ultimately shapes the world into that which we aim for it to become.”
The Clarkston Area Optimist Club honored the winners of their breakfast meeting, May 1. Myers and Miller were there to read their essays, while Dimmer was at the Business Professionals of America National Conference in California.

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