Elizabeth Kimbrough

Vandy Reflections MLK Day 2012

1st Place Middle School • 7th Grade • Overbrook School

Elizabeth Kimbrough

Elizabeth’s Dream

I have a dream rooted in the hope that everyone will live in peace and harmony with one another.   Bullying will stop. My friends will be able to walk into school and not fear being insulted because they are different.  My hope is that we focus on learning, getting along, and making the world better rather than putting each other down.    I have a dream that threats of violence and acts of violence will stop. Instead, love will be our answer.  If this dream comes true, my generation will lead all to world peace and put an end to conflicts because of skin color, how much money a person has, and whether the person is male or female.

I have a dream that, in the future, we grow to love one another as God loves us.  Then, gang violence will stop.  Wars will end. World peace will really happen.  My hope is that we will learn to share what we have with those who do not have.   People who have food will feed the hungry.  The rich will give to the poor.  People with homes will shelter the homeless.  People looking for jobs will get one. Teachers will treat every student the same. No one will have to worry about paying a doctor to help them get well.  This is my dream.

I have a dream that we will all feel good about ourselves and work for our dreams to come true.  We do not have to settle for less.  We just need to believe all things are possible.  If we decide to be doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, professors, engineers, or even the President of the United States, we will live out our dream.  If our dream is to come true, like the characters in the Wizard of Oz, we must have the wisdom of the Scarecrow, the heart of the Tin Man, the courage of the Lion, and the determination of Dorothy.  I am a dreamer.  There have been many before me like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Crispus Attucks, Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Barack Obama.    These lived their dreams, and I, Elizabeth Adria Kimbrough, shall live my dream until I can join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”