90 Miles of Smiles by Rachel

90 Miles of Smiles by Rachel - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Though I could easily write an essay about my multiple academic successes throughout middle and high school, I do not think that they are my crowing achievements. The school accomplishment that I am most proud of was simply touching the heart of a little girl just as much as she touched mine.
As the holiday season approached last winter, the majority of teenagers were worried about what they were going to receive from their friends and family. My high school’s National Honor Society (NHS), on the other hand, was more concerned with giving.
Every year, NHS does a toy drive for underprivileged children in other countries to give them a sense of Holiday Cheer that they normally would not have. The club members are encouraged to bring a shoe box full of gender and age appropriate items such as small toys, clothes and hygienic products. I participate every year, but last year, I did something a little different with my shoe box.
Last winter, I chose to have my shoe box given to an eight to ten-year-old girl and inside, along with a few toys and a sundress, I included a photo of myself. Since I knew that many of the shoe boxes were shipped to European and South American countries, I also had my father, originally from Cuba, help me write a short note in Spanish. Though I was very excited, I did not anticipate getting anything in return because many countries were experiencing war and acts of terror.
A few months later, I came home from school to find an envelope with my name on it sitting on the kitchen counter. To my surprise, it contained a letter from the little girl who had gotten my shoe box. I was so ecstatic and could not believe she actually wrote me back. The letter was also written in Spanish so I had my father aid in translating it for me. The little girl was named Odalys and she lived in Cuba with her mother and two brothers. She expressed how thankful she was for the gift and told me about her family and what she liked to do in her spare time. Odalys also detailed how her dream was for her family to move to America someday. I felt strangely connected with this child whom I had never even met and her story opened my eyes to the many blessings American citizens take for granted.
More than anything, I was grateful that my shoe box not only provided Odalys with a holiday gift, but also hope for a better future. Being a teenager, it was easy for me to take the simple things in life for granted. Just the fact that our country provides its people with freedom and safety is a lot more than families in other countries have and I never fully understood how fortunate I really am. After reading Odalys’s letter, I gained a different perspective on life and a true appreciation for everything and everyone in it. Today, I am more than thankful for every opportunity that I have and I use those opportunities to my advantage and do not waste them. So, though I have never and will probably never meet Odalys, I can guarantee that she touched my heart just as much, if not more, than I touched hers. While Cuba is a mere 90 miles away, it is nice to know that I was able to bring smiles across the 90 miles.