Select Entry- Bonnie Ladick, Age 47

Welcome to our Optimistic Essay category. Here you will find the $1,000 winning contest essay, 5 finalist essays and 15 honorable mention essays and a growing list of hand-picked select essays that readers submitted during our "Why Are You Optimistic About the Future?" contest.

2004 was a bad year for me, and 2005 was even worse. I was going along fine…then boom…I found myself in the midst of a vast, empty valley and for the past twelve months I have not been able to find my way out. But here it is a new year and I plan to make a fresh start, as the world is filled with abounding possibilities. Is it simply blind faith? Or is it the fact that the very nature of a valley is that it is a low land surrounded by mountains? Nothing wonderful ever comes from wandering aimlessly through a valley, except that it provides time for retrospection. Why didn't I make it last time? Can I even do this? Do I really have the energy to put on all that gear again? Where do I start? How far will I get this time? Why should I even try?

Why? - Because that's life, an endless series of hills and valleys. All we need to do is open our eyes, look around, and we will see the next mountain is within our reach. Even after we make our way to the top of one peak there will always be a another, bigger one to climb just up ahead.

So the interest rates went up again - that's great! By the time I make it to the top of the next mountain they will have come down again. Could there be another terrorist attack, a terrible hurricane or a giant earthquake? Sure, last year brought devastating natural disasters, but it also brought renewed hope as millions of caring people opened their hearts and their pocketbooks. Not just once or twice, and not just here in America, but each time there was a major crisis we saw people all over the globe reaching out to help one another.

When disaster strikes the world does not stop moving, changing, or evolving and neither can we. That is why we must continually assess ourselves, and our conditions. Pull out the road map, find out where we are, look ahead to where we want to be and then determine what we will need to make the journey. Sure, it is easy to get frustrated when we hear that millions of jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries. It is even more frustrating for those affected. However, those that keep moving forward will find that at the top of the next big hill are millions of new opportunities that have been created by this expanding global economy; and those of us that prepare well will be ready to step into these new roles.

Most of us will never be the first one to reach the top, nor the last to get there, and no one is ever completely safeguarded from potential harm. Remember the instructions echoed daily by thousands of flight attendants? Probably most frequent fliers tune them out, or regard them as rhetoric, yet it is vital to remember to put your own oxygen mask on before attempting to assist the person next to you, especially if that person is a child. Thus, while helping ourselves should be our number one priority, it is equally important to remember to assist each other along the way. If we simply stick out a hand after each rocky precipice to pull up the person struggling behind us, there will surely be someone up ahead to help us along when needed.

So now as I set forth into the New Year I have packed hope and faith along with other essential gear. I have left my worn, torn bags from 2005 behind and I am taking along a fresh new outlook. Yet, I have also come to realize that I cannot be too overconfident because the weather is clear now and the roads appear smooth, as there will surely be stormy weather up ahead. And though I will not forget all the bruises and scrapes I have received in the past, I will not dwell on them either. Rather, I will think about how good it feels to be moving forward again, how wonderful it is to have the means and ability to even make this journey, and most importantly how sweet it will be when I reach my final goal.