337 Junior Essay, Second Place Rayelle Laffers, Branch #265 - Aldergrove Look Beyond The Hill When my dad went to war, it was like my world stopped. I felt sadness and anger in my heart. This world is broken, will it ever be whole? I was eight when my dad left for war. My mother told me that he would be back soon. I was too young to know that was not true. Before he left, he said to me these words that gave me strength : "Look beyond the hill." When I was nine, I asked my mother when dad would be back. She just stood there and said: "Look beyond the hill." When I turned ten, I was old enough to realize he wasn't coming back. And these words that I remembered briefly, brought me strength: "Look beyond the hill." In the year I turned eleven my mother said to me, "Your father is gone. Now follow me: Beyond the hill." The words that my dad had told me before he left brought me strength, but I never knew why. At the age twelve I realized why. They gave me strength to look beyond the broken world. To remember that God is looking out for us, and he has a plan for us all. The rest of my life was different from there. I wasn't scared or sad. I knew I would see my father again one day. Something made me realize that the world will never be whole. There will always be fighting somewhere even when we don't know it. It is our choice to make a difference, and men and women around the world made that choice. They chose to sacrifice their lives in the place of ours. I miss my dad every day, but I know that he didn't do this for himself but for others, for me. Every year I go to his grave and I thank him for everything he did. This is now part of my Remembrance Day. Before this day it didn't mean much to me, but now it does more than ever. I never miss a time to see him: Just beyond the hill. Story told by a girl who lost her dad
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