Imagine sixth-grader wins national essay contest

Thousands of students at more than 50 Imagine Schools throughout the United States recently competed in the organization’s 12 annual National Character Essay contest.

Winners were chosen within each grade level based on content, organization, voice, and grammar and spelling.

The winning essayist at the sixth grade level was Daniela Sandoval, 10, from the Imagine School in El Centro. Her winning essay follows.

“Listen more than you talk. No one learned anything by hearing themselves talk.” — Richard Branson, English business magnate and philanthropist

Richard Branson shared this piece of advice on Linkedin. But the question I plan to tackle is, how can normal people like you and me apply this advice to our everyday lives?

Of course, we are not running billion-dollar companies like Branson, but listening to others is an undervalued and underused skill today. Think about it: How many times have you had a seemingly unsolvable problem but then realized it was simple after listening to someone?

Listening to others is key to building relationships. Historically, better listeners made people and leaders. For example, take a historical figure nearly everyone (in the United States) has heard of: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King was an inspiring civil rights activist of the 1960s, but of course, you know this. But while he was a great leader, he was also a great listener.

He had to be, to organize one of the most well-known protests in America, even now, 62 years later.

He was a newcomer in Montgomery [Alabama] at the beginning of the boycott and was fairly unknown outside of his church, where he was pastor. King became one of the most well-known people in Montgomery by listening to the people.

For instance, he paid attention to the people of Montgomery and helped them, building relationships within the community.

On the subject of community, there are a couple I am a part of. There are the Harry Potter, Star vs. Forces the Evil, Gravity Falls, Star Wars, Marvel and DC Comics, and Sailor Moon fandoms, of course, but I also have my community of cheerleaders. We all need to listen to each other for everything to work in the routine. If one girl isn’t listening or paying attention, an entire stunt or even the entire routine can fall apart.

But we all help each other without individual problems, building our small community from the ground up.

Listening can even help you academically (Who knew? <<coughs>>). In class, when I don’t understand a concept, idea or equation, it is usually because I was not paying attention.

Listening is an invaluable skill that can be utilized in nearly every aspect of life, whether academic or for enjoyment.

Paying heed to others and doing this more than speaking is one of the best things you can do! Like Diogenes, the ancient Greek philosopher, once said, “We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.”

In summation, the advice Richard Branson gave us at the beginning can be applied in every aspect of an average day. We can use this in work, school and other activities all the time.

You may be saying to yourself, “Well, all this is really nice, Dani, but what have YOU learned from writing this? Because I need to grade this.” And to that I say keep reading. From this essay I have learned that Richard Branson was absolutely correct.

People should simply listen more than they talk.