Miley Cyrus Tickets Essay Contest

I received a considerable amount of emails with complaints about the essay I chose. It’s true that I asked for a creative essay, but to be honest when I got this essay I had a very distinct feeling that I should choose that one.

When talking to Theresa on the phone my feelings were confirmed. Theresa’s neighbors were in more need of the tickets than the essay stated. Alex, the daughter in the family who loves Miley Cyrus, also has cystic fibrosis. Theresa decided not to include that in the essay because she was afraid that it would be written off as another sob story. The more I spoke with Theresa on the phone, the more I knew that this was the right decision.

Theresa didn’t stop there. When she knew that Dan and his family had received the tickets, she went the extra step and arranged for Alex to meet with Miley personally. What better treasure on Earth is there than such good friends?

So, again I apologize, especially to those super creative essays that were nearly impossible to turn down. I’m glad I followed my feelings on this one.

Choosing an essay was hard. I honestly had a nightmare last night because of the stress. I realized that there are several main groups of essays, the ones where you claimed to be Miley’s biggest fan (and many were extremely convincing!), several where a very tragic thing had happened and where the tickets might do some real good to soothe some pain, and a handful of brilliant, clever, and creative essays.

I Chose Theresa’s essay “Dan the Man.” Her idea of giving the tickets to a family on her block that was unconditionally welcoming to her was inspiring to me. The problem I faced was that there were probably a lot of truthful essays about tragedy and pain, but also a fair share of untruthful ones, and there was no way for me to know which one was which. Also, it was difficult to empirically say which young person was really Miley’s biggest fan. Some of the creative ones almost won, but again, there was a dead tie on a lot of them.

Theresa’s essay on giving the tickets to this family wasn’t exaggerated or fantastical, but truly seemed to follow a principal that America can use more of. She wanted to give the tickets to a family who so warmly welcomed her family to a community. It is this story of ordinary people thinking not of themselves but of others first that touched me. There wasn’t any false patriotism or religiosity in the essay, just simple good will.

Thank you so much, everyone who participated in this contest. Hopefully, even if you didn’t win, the contest made you reflect a bit about life and the things that matter, I know it did for me.

The winning essay is directly below this post.  Happy Independence Day to all.

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