Select Entry- Tim Austin, Age 44

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.

A history making event took place on Aug 29 2005. This event that will be a reference point in history for generations to come, this event would give rise to the greatest display of human kindness and compassion since the 9/11 attacks. The event was the utter destruction that hurricane Katrina inflicted on New Orleans, Mississippi and the entire Gulf Coast Region.

This may seem a strange way to start an essay about optimism but it served as a wakeup call for most every American citizen to see our fellow citizens forced to live in squalled conditions without even the most basic everyday things we take for granted like clean water. Watching the news film you would think you were looking at a poor third world country not major American cities. The media coverage of the events following the landfall of this devastating storm would stir something deep inside everyone who saw it. People from 6 to 86 mobilized and tried to do whatever necessary to help the displaced residents.

Donations of food, water, clothes and necessary supplies poured in from all over.

People from all walks of life were moved to help. From the elementary school student who gave his allowance to the movie star who gave a million or two from his last movie paycheck because , just for a second we all tried to picture how it would be for us to be without food, water, or a roof over our heads.

I think there is one positive side effect of terrible natural disasters and that is they motivate us all to remember that it is right and just to help your fellow man. The donations kept pouring into relief organizations that they had to turn donations of supplies away and tell people that if they wanted to help to please just donate some cash.

All we need to do is determine a way to bottle this feeling that comes over people and turn it into something we practice as a part of everyday life and not just when something extraordinarily bad happens.

This was the biggest reason I feel we have to be optimistic about the future, but there are many smaller, less obvious things I see in my daily life that give rise to optimism. I see young people like my own son that are being helpful and respectful to elderly neighbors by offering to help with thing like taking out the garbage and other tasks around the house. I have seen teens becoming more responsible for their health as evidence by the over 40% drop in teen smokers since 1997 according to the American Lung Association. I see athletes having a greater social conscience's and talking more openly about their faith and trying to be good role models.

I feel that we have made great strides in combating racism, but there is still a lot of work left to do. That work will continue long into the future and ultimately we will look at each other not as a member of a particular race but as common members of the human race. I would love to be around when that day comes but I am not sure how long it will take.

So in conclusion I would like to ask everyone to carry a little bit of that hurricane relief spirit out into your daily life and don't always swear at the driver who cuts you but tap your brakes and let him with a smile and a friendly wave. Basically I am asking you to go forth and commit random acts of kindness and see what it brings you.