Select Entry- Steve Kramer, Age 39

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.

If some one presents me with the question, "Why am I optimistic about the future?" I can answer it very easily. I am optimistic because the future is a book not yet written. It is as simple as that. We who live here and now are the authors of this book. If we write it well, then it will be a good book. If we don't, then…

So we can just decide to make the future a good one. The choices in life we make now are the only ones that truly matter. The decisions we make now will determine how the book is written. So if we remember how to make good choices, the future will be bright.

"But how does this make you optimistic?" you say. "Look at the choices we seem to be making." I am optimistic because I have seen what the mind of man can do. Yes, we are capable of destruction and ugliness. But we are also capable of creation and great beauty. As long as one person can remember this fact, and act upon it, there is always hope for the future.

When faced with a difficult choice, I find the best way to make the decision is to ask myself the question "Will this choice help me be a better person?" And if the answer to that is yes, then "Will this choice benefit the world?" As long as I remember that I am part of this world, and that my choices will affect those around me, then it is easy to make the "right" decision. And I know there are others out there who feel the same way, with more realizing this concept everyday.

Humanity has amazing potential. No one can deny this. And we have great power, because we can make our thoughts and ideas become a reality. So if we decide that our future will be a wonderful future; if we write the book with this thought in mind, then it will be so. I have decided make the book of the future a happy book. I am not alone. There are so many creative people out there who don't like the book as it is written. We have all decided to write a better book. Knowing this; knowing that there are numerous humans with the power of creation who have decide that the future will be a wonderful place, how can I not be optimistic about the future?