2019 Winner: Lucas Fields

Winning essay

A requirement of NHS is an Individual Service Project (ISP). My ISP this year and last year was Clean Up Northern Kentucky. I went to local highways, hiking trails, and parks to pick up trash. This project sounds like your typical uninspired community service project. However, I love nature and spending time outdoors, so when I see litter on the side of a trail it truly upsets me. My annoyance worsens when I see empty syringes and bottles filled with urine where families and children walk. Although this might not be the most glamourous of jobs, it was rewarding to see the giant black trash bags filled up and thrown in the dumpster. Throughout the fourteen hours, I have learned how important it is to ask for help and work as a team. Without the people who helped me with my project, I would have never collected nearly as much trash and felt overwhelmed by the amount of work that was needed to clean everything. 

Soccer has been my favorite extracurricular throughout high school. I started soccer at Beechwood in eighth grade and was a founding member of the program. I have continued with the program all the way to my senior year. I have never been the star player, but I did not sit the bench the whole game either. I showed up to every practice and every game, even when I had a broken arm. The schedule was brutal with two practices a day in the summer and up to five games a week in the fall. It was physically and mentally demanding, but I do not regret one second of it. That is because of the lessons I have learned and the friends I have made. The biggest lesson I learned was that hard work pays off. My senior year, I practiced very hard and often. I knew this would be my last season, so I was going to make the most of it. I ended up starting every game I was not injured, becoming the team captain, and being voted most improved player by my teammates. Next year, I will take my hard work and put it into doing well in college. 

One of the biggest obstacles I have dealt with in life is dealing with death. Recently, my grandma passed away after losing a fight with cancer. However, she put up a fight. Grandma Fields battled for three whole years. She was constantly on and off of chemotherapy, but she did not let that limit her. She always was throwing holiday parties where family would go over and eat together. She wanted to be treated like normal, so I had to convince her to let me mow her lawn for her. Grandma Fields was the strongest woman I have ever known. When the doctor gave her three months to live, she ignored him and lived for six months past that. She taught me to fight for every inch and to never give up.