Scholarship

I'm transferring to Purdue, and my bank account is getting the shit beat out of it. I'll need like 29,000 every year, and right now I'm behind 13,000. So, I'm entering every and any scholarship I can, sending letters to private corporations, and getting loan estimates from banks.

I just entered this scholarship contest for 10,000. That would help; that would help a lot! I was supposed to write a 500 (or less) word essay about what I think is the most important choice I have to make in my life to be happy and successful. I think I did well, I'm fond of my little essay, but keep your fingers crossed.

Owning and Living My Life

The defining choice I’ve made in my life, the choice which precedes happiness, is the choice to acknowledge that I own my life. Every human owns their life by the fact of volition, but some choose to abstain from asserting that right. I choose to claim the right to my life and the productive work therein.
Owning my life means that I have complete responsibility for it. It means that I choose to act and think as I do; and I claim the consequences of all my actions and thoughts. Since my actions and thoughts are my own, I must decide upon morals to govern those. And since I own my life, the choice of morals is my own. I don’t expect the morals of any other person to work in place of my own. Morality means that which is beneficial to my life, because I own and must act to keep it. This emphatically does not mean that I do whatever I please.
Let me give some examples. The law states that I’m not allowed to drink alcohol because I’m under 21. I do not drink alcohol because it will a.) make me temporarily stupid and b.) physically harm me. Owning my life means that I choose whether or not I want to drink alcohol by rationally considering the value and consequences of doing so. The same applies to criminal behaviour. I do not condone murder because I respect my life and don’t want to be murdered. I don’t steal because I value my own property and my right to it.
Owning my life also means that I have the duty of either sustaining it or not. I produce the means for my survival, either with my mental or physical labor. If I need a gallon of milk I buy it with money which I have earned. The money I have earned is derived from my ability to work and exchange my work in a mutual trade. Since I want an education, in order to achieve the goals of my life, I must acquire the money to pay for that education. I am writing to earn the money by answering with the ability of my words. I hope my ability is great enough to please those who are willing to give money in order that I may get an education. But the means is not achieved by begging; rather it is achieved by proving my self-worth.
I think this makes me wholly selfish; everything I do is for my own benefit. I make friends to gain conversation and human contact. I trust that those with which I make friends do so for similarly selfish reasons. Our interaction is mutual, not parasitic. Because I have chosen to own my life, I love out of happiness rather than pity.
Happiness comes from living your life well. I can’t imagine any better way to do so than by thoroughly owning it every day.


Update [7.15.2005]: I made it to the finals! There were 7,000 entries and 140 were chosen as finalists to be published in the companies' promotional book. 10 of those will be chosen to receive 1,000 scholarship each.

So I was mistaken; it's 1,000, not 10,000. But 1/14 chance for 1,000 might be better than 1/140 chance at 10,000. Of course, the judging isn't random; it's based on merit, so I think my chances are considerably better than 1/14. I'll know in November how my essay fared. I wish I could be there during the judging to see what the mysterious 'they' have to say about my essay.