Scholarship Essay Contest Update (7/4/15)

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! I hope all my American readers are having a fun, relaxing, and safe holiday. I'm just chilling at home with my family, waiting for the pulled pork to be done.

Since the deadline for entering the My Life as 3D Scholarship Essay Contest was last evening, I wanted to update you on where things stand.

I'm really thrilled to tell you that we ended up with a total of 30 entries! That number is way higher than I expected. When my wife and I decided to do this contest, I was thinking it would be a miracle if more than a couple of people entered. If you would've told me that we'd have 30 essays to read and judge, I never would've believed you. Consider me blown away.

For what it's worth, the 30 entries came from 17 different states. (New Jersey and Massachusetts had 4 each.) And of the 30 entrants, 26 of them are female. (I've always thought that women tend to share more than men when it comes to addiction in the family.) We even got essays from two sisters.

Oh. And 15 of the entries showed up in the final 24 hours, so I guess college students like to procrastinate. (See image below. Haha.)

Thank you and good luck to everyone who sent us an essay. Even though we can't give all of you a scholarship--believe me, we wish we could--please know that every single one of you is already a winner. Being the sibling of someone suffering from addiction isn't easy. Talking about it isn't easy, either, so I commend you for putting your experiences down on "paper." I truly believe that writing is therapeutic, so hopefully you benefited from sharing your story.

Now it's time for us to start reading and judging these amazing essays. We'll be announcing the winner on August 3rd.

Peace.