Picture This
Annual Youth Initiative contest
I Am American Democracy
High School Winner
Addisyn M. Wade
Northeast School for the Arts
9th Grade
I am American Democracy.
Don't leave just yet.
I know what you're thinking:
"How can she represent the American people?"
People see me and assume the worst.
"She's a thug!"
"A murderer!"
"She must vape and do drugs!"
"Her people make this world worse!"
Her. People.
Last time I checked I thought that we were just "people".
People with hopes and ambitions.
People with million-dollar companies.
People with highly coveted awards.
People in the White House.
People declaring laws unconstitutional.
But no.
I'm a menace.
A drug dealer.
A school shooter.
A rioter.
A disgrace to the Founding Fathers.
My mother always says:
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
So when someone says that all lives matter, not just black,
I smile and shake my head.
Because I know something that they don't:
I am the future of this country.
I am American Democracy.
And that's something you can't take away from me.