Gallaudet National Essay Contest
Commendable		About-face By Kelly Burdick Oswego High School; Oswego, New York

	Kelly Burdick

In seventh grade, I was this girl whose dream was to work at McDonald’s. I informed everyone that I would not go to college because I was sick of school. I put no effort into schoolwork. I never handed in all of my homework or completed it on time. I simply did not care. I gave everyone a hard time. I refused help from everyone.

At the end of my sophomore year, I got a job through our school’s Summer Youth Employment Program.

The whole summer was a lesson to me.

My average day was getting up at seven thirty in the morning, getting ready, and being on time by eight o’clock. Once there, we gathered our tools— shovels, gloves, rakes, water jug, and cups. I dug ditches in extreme conditions. Sometimes the temperature would be 85 degrees or higher. With the added humidity, it was almost unbearable. One day I wore a tank top. It did make work cooler for me, but when I got home from work, my back was burnt. I returned to work with a burnt back, sore muscles, and blistered hands. I preferred to work in the wet, angry rain, even though it made the mud heavy to lift up and load.

I learned several lessons though. I learned how being responsible can get you places. I learned about teamwork. I learned how to tolerate a lazy co-worker. And the most important lesson of all? I learned why I should go to college. Digging ditches was not something I wanted to do.

I believe that it was because of my experience working that I started caring about completing my homework and getting help when it was needed. My grades in school improved. The first time I achieved the high honor roll, I struggled not to cry.

My teacher of the deaf, Mrs. Moretti, was pleased. She kept commenting on this change, and she encouraged me to keep it up.

Now I’ve been accepted at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Mrs. Moretti still teases me about my seventh-grade dream—to work at McDonald’s.