Essay

I love to get emails and letters from people who've enjoyed my talks but this is the first essay I've ever received. It's written by a sixth grader. I love the description of how I was paralyzed the best.

Meg Johnson Speaks by A. W.

The students from (school name removed) walked over to our school to hear a speech by Meg Johnson. Meg was very funny, and her story was very touching.

She was hiking in a place she thought was very pretty it had red rocks, red sand, and red dirt. When she came across some boulders that were squished together she decided to jump from one to the other. She got to the last boulder and when she went to jump for it she miscalculated the distance and fell. What she didn’t realize was that she was actually jumping from one small mountain top to the next, so when she slipped she fell thirty-five feet to the ground. She had to have a helicopter take her to the hospital, and now is paralyzed from the chest down.

That didn’t stop her for long though. She then showed us a crisp clean dollar bill, and got an assistant from the audience. Meg then asked how much it was worth, after that she had her assistant crumple up the dollar bill, spit on it, stomp on it, and jump on it. Then she asked what it was worth again. This demonstration was to show us no matter how down you feel, no matter how beat up you are, just like that crumpled, spit on, jumped on dirty old dollar bill you are still worth a whole dollar.

Then she goes on to tell us a ton of funny stories about being paralyzed, and how friends, family, and even strangers helped the best they could. I loved the assembly and I think most everyone else did too.

This story was written by A. W., a sixth grader.