The following is the winning high school entry for the Network of Enlightened Women’s 2026 Essay Contest. Be sure to follow NeW on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or sign up for the NeWsletter to stay informed about the 2027 Essay Contest.
The most powerful reminder of what America’s founding principles mean came from watching my mom take her oath and become a United States citizen just three months ago. Seeing how emotional that moment was for her brought the ideas of the Declaration of Independence to life in a way that a textbook never could.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Those revolutionary words, written 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence, mean just as much today as they did in 1776.
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