Essay Contest

How winning this contest would impact/change my life? (www.metrocast.net/~winmyhouse)

Our friends are in the same situation as we are in terms of owning a house they’d like to sell in order to get a fresh start on life. The only differences are that their house cost way more and they have two children and one on the way.

Last year they tried to sell their home the conventional way. This year, they’ve opted to try something new. They’re holding an essay contest. Write a 250-word essay or less about how winning their wonderful home could change your life and pay an entry fee of $100. If 3,000 people enter they pay off their mortgage and the best writer gets the house.

I told my mom about their creativity and she suggested we enter the contest (she’d give us the $100). Her reasoning is that we have nothing to lose and maybe this is God’s way of helping us out.

Thing is, I don’t know what to write. They want witty writing. They want good grammar and punctuation. They want something so good it would beat out 3,000 other people’s reasons for a house. They don’t want an essay full of clichés, which is what I feel I could give them (maybe that could be witty?).

I’ve started an essay about ten times already (essay deadline: Nov. 30), but I cannot commit to any one of those beginnings. For example: “Winning 28 Park Street would give my family a new lease on life and allow us to spend more time together raising our family the way we feel is right.” That just seems too boring. They want catchy.

So this is our story in the best way I know how to write it.

A young man has always had one dream: to have a family and be the sole provider for his wife and children. While attempting to achieve this dream in the overtaxed and underpaid state of Maine that young man has instead worked so many hours to barely get by that he doesn’t get to spend time with his family. With ever-increasing debt the young man realizes that his dream may never be fulfilled the way he had hoped.

That young man is my husband, Adam, and winning the house at 28 Park Street would make his only dream of providing for his family on his income alone a reality. In addition, it would allow him to spend time with the family he loves so much. Instead of working 12-hour shifts to pay off debt, Adam could work nine hours a day and spend evenings and weekends with his family.

Adam would not miss out on silly events like seeing his son run around the house with a little red cape on his back screaming, “subah man!” Adam and I would get to spend quality time together instead of sleepily telling each other important things about the day as we go to bed at night. Debt would be paid off so we wouldn’t be going to live with our parents in their basement with our one year old. We’d have our independence, we’d have our family and a longtime dream would be fulfilled.

Too redundant? Got any suggestions?

We have time to re-write it. We just want to win!