Games with words - so many rules, so many ways to play them wrong, but if you're successful, you can say unforgettable things. You can change minds, change the world. I wrote an essay this year that felt meaningless. The prompt was easy - write about a literacy you've developed, reading or singing or playing soccer, anything in which you've developed skill. I wrote about storytelling. I started storytelling as a little girl with my sister, playing with dolls. But this is not a story I want to tell here. I want to explain the picture to the left, of me holding a 1st place prize for this essay about storytelling - to make a point that I have discovered this year through this honors seminar. Words wield a power with which even the strongest weapon cannot compete. My essay was, in all honesty, meaningless. At least to other people. It was my own personal anecdote about learning to tell stories. And yet, I recieved a shocking email that I had been awarded first place for the "Outstanding Essay" category of the English Competition. Words, if played correctly, in the right order, with all the best shuffles in the thesaurus, can be really powerful. They can inspire strong emotions, they can win awards. I do not believe I am an expert at this game of words. Instead, I believe that through this honors seminar, I began to understand the rules of the game, just a little more. I began to break the box of what I believed academic essays should look like, allowing me a freedom to write an essay about an ordinary subject that could win an "Outstanding" award.