I need your help!

Hi everybody. I apologize in advance for this post because I understand that many are going to be annoyed by this but I really need your help to win this essay contest. If you can take a second out of your day to click the "I love it" button at the bottom of my essay I would be so grateful and you would be the coolest person ever. I'm not normally the type of guy who posts stuff like this but I decided to swallow my pride and just go for it. Thanks in advance for any attention you give me! And if your in Rhode Island or CT and want to climb let me know!

platform.votigo.com/fbconte…

shouldn't you ask people to read it, then endorse it if they like it?

Here's the essay for people too lazy to click...

Dmadison wrote:I first realized that I was in love with the mountains in first grade. I dreamt of being the youngest person ever to scale the worlds highest peak. I still remember the day when my mom brought home the national geographic that was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest. I was thrilled and flipped through the pages of that magazine until the story was old news. I was absolutely obsessed with climbing as a child even though I never once got the chance to do it. During elementary school I used to traverse around the outside of the jungle gym being careful not to touch the ground as if I was on the face of El Capitan or crossing a crevasse in the Khumbu icefall. As I got older my love and admiration for climbing only grew, I read any book or magazine that I could get my hands on and finally in middle school I went climbing for the first time in the gym. I had done those portable rock walls that are a common site at festivals but never anything like this. The walls were so tall and I was hypnotized by the psychedelic tape and colored holds. It was no Everest but it was good enough for me. Unfortunately I only made it to this gym 3 times over the course of my high school career an I was beginning to think that my climbing dreams were never going to happen. When I got to college I joined the outing club in a desperate search for people who climbed, but going to school in Rhode Island means that climbers are few and far between. I did end up making some friends who were, quite literally, going to show me the ropes. Over the last year and a half I have transformed from the kid who dreamed about mountains on the playground to a kid who is about to spend spring break climbing in the Red River Gorge and sleeping behind Miguel's Pizza. My knowledge of climbing and climbing safely has really grown over recent times and I would love to continue my growth as a climber by learning from the people I read about in those National Geographic magazines.

Ian Stewart wrote:Here's the essay for people too lazy to click... I for one won't be "loving it". If you're entering an essay in a contest, you should at least proofread it once or twice. I also find it interesting that you use "dreamed" and "dreamt" in the same essay...

I apologize, maybe posting it was a bad idea but I can't change anything now. I gave it a shot. And obviously I would hope someone would read it before deciding if they like, I guess I just assumed that was a given. I do appreciate the fact the you took the second to even give it a look though regardless of how much you liked it or in this case didn't like it.

Javier Licon wrote:shouldn't you ask people to read it, then endorse it if they like it?

It seems as if you are trying to bare your soul for god and everybody, exposing what is ultimately a personal and private journey. That takes a certain amount of courage, but your professed love for the endeavor appears disproportionate with your meager experience.

You're going to have to get out of Rhode Island before you can even begin to scratch the surface of this new world of rock you think you're looking for.

Well, shit. You guys are some harsh critics.

Greg Kimble wrote:Well, shit. You guys are some harsh critics.

Hey, vote your conscience, man.

Not bad writing.. just not great. Good for you having the balls to post this among all the Shakespeares around here.

F*ck it. I clicked love it.

Balls to post up asking for people to read your work. Love the stoke, had that same Nat Geo.
I f$ckn' loved it!

Brian Hudson wrote: . . . the entire thing reads like it was written by a sixth grader.

Kirby1013 wrote: Not bad writing.. just not great.

Clifton Santiago wrote:"To live is to love, to love is to try. It matters not the subject or the execution, but the effort. To reveal yourself to others through honest effort, to lay bare your capabilities for others to scorn, to unveil your passion unpolished and rough, that is life, that is courage. It is the very stuff of manhood." -Clifton Santiago, 2013

TWK wrote: "Try not. Do or do not!! There is no try" Yoda, a long time ago.

Good on you for publicly posting your story. Compared to the other essays you might have a chance. There is some extremely bad shit to sort through on there. Harsh criticism is the best way to get better. You're East coast, you can take it I'm sure.

Get the f*** out of Rhode Island. That's coming from a fellow Rhody kid.

And don't just go to NH/VT either, head West!