I am a mediocre American.
When I was in the fourth grade, I learned that "mediocre" means ordinary, even commonplace, and I recognized myself immediately.
"Are we rich?" I asked my mother.
"No," she replied. "We're Middle-class Americans."
As I advanced in school, I declined in self-esteem. Not only am I mediocre, I continued to discover, but I am close to being a nonentity.
Men once tipped their hats to Grandfather because he claimed relationship to Abraham Lincoln. I failed to inherit this reward; Cousin Abe's kinfolk are prodigious.
When I was nine, I stood up in class and proudly announced: "I am one-sixteenth Cherokee Indian!" So were ten of my classmates.
I am truly mediocre, a mere dot among millions in the world's humanity-mass.
But I am also an American, which puts a different face on things. It means I am not consigned to mediocrity all my life because my background was not one of fame or fortune or because I lack charisma. I am free to participate in a world brimming with problems, but with a great deal of promise, too.
As a mediocre American, I represent this country's multiplicity, its very backbone, its visage before the world. Yet, with so many changes in the air and the constant drumbeat for improvement ever louder, this becomes a frightful responsibility, a temptation to fall back into the relative security of the pack.
But too many inherent reminders demand recognition. I cannot forget that because I am an American, my studies are not interrupted while I take my turn on some collective farm. My history books have not been re-written to disparage the past and exalt the present. I am not forced to join the underground in order to criticize the President of the United States.
I was born in an inspiring moment in history, preceded by a fabulous era of invention and technology; and I am alive now to take part in putting those efforts to work toward a better life for everyone.
I have a lot to live in today's world and a lot to give in tomorrow's. I may never create so much as a ripple on the broad sea of undercurrents of political corruption, campus morals, racial unrest, our foreign image, aid to the poor, concern for the sick and the elderly, employment opportunities, the upgrading of education and the many other whirlpools that seem to threaten to submerge us. But somewhere in tomorrow's scheme, a fitting job beckons and I hope to be ready, no matter how small the signal or the pond from which it comes.
God grant that I and many others of my generation may be able to rise above mediocrity and respond to the challenge.
Betsy Mayo
Miss Mayo, a junior at Jenks High School, was named the state winner for her essay which begins "I am a mediocre American." Her patriotism essay drew her a $1,000 U.S. bond and an equal amount for the school as a state winner.