2025 JUNETEENTH HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST WINNER

First Place Winner

Blake Rogers

Lakeview High School, Class of 2025

I was born with a gift. Now, before you start to think that I’m going to tell you about some superpower I acquired in a freak accident, or maybe that I see things nobody else can, that’s not the case. My gift is far more practical than that, you see, my gift is that I was born free. 

There are a myriad of angles that could be taken to describe the meaning of freedom, and an even greater plethora of perspectives that these angles are derived from. One thing you can look around and notice in America, that’s been the same since its founding, is the vehement protection of freedom. Even if we can or can’t agree on exactly what “Freedom” means, we all know what it feels like when it’s infringed upon.

To me, freedom is the feeling of finally getting better after you’ve struggled for so long. It’s having the choice to give up or to try again. The ability to wake up every day, go to school, and increase my knowledge—that's freedom. While I know what it feels like to be free, I often take it for granted. It's easy to become comfortable with your surroundings, and inevitably, this leads to feeling entitled to many great luxuries. In 2025, America looks incredibly different from what it was in 1865. You see, I couldn’t possibly imagine not being allowed to love who I want because of what I look like. I couldn’t imagine not being able to come home to my diverse family. Because of the color of their skin, I would no longer be able to call five of my seven sisters my sisters, nor my parents my parents. I wouldn’t be able to go to my best friends Josh or Isaac’s houses every week to hang out and have fun together. Most of all, my biracial girlfriend, a woman I love more than anything, wouldn’t exist.

While I can’t fathom going through this personally, I’m not blind to the fact that people, for hundreds of years, lived this exact life. Freedom is the jail time that Rosa Parks faced and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. It’s Malcolm X’s speeches, and Dr. King’s ultimate sacrifice. Freedom is in knowing you’re afraid, and choosing to push forward because of a greater purpose. Due to the sacrifices of those who came before me, I can live in this world of freedom. I may, at this point in my life, have no clue what I’m doing or where I’m going, but because of them, I’m free to try and fail and try again until I know. 

In today's America, I am free to love who I want, I am free to be who I want, and for the most part, I am free to do what I want. So, who do I plan to be, and what do I plan to do with all of this freedom at my fingertips? I plan to change the world. Right now, I may not have a plan to save the world, but I don’t need to go that far just yet. When the civil rights movement started in America, it was focused on the American people. As it should’ve been, because, in the same way you can’t save lives if you’re dying, you can’t change the world without first starting at home. Off the backs of my ancestors, from the barren battlefields of the Civil War, to streets occupied by protestors bound by solidarity, my freedom was born, and with it, I want to give back. 

As a person part of Gen Z, I can say that the times we’re living in today are unfathomable. Hatred is being peddled by our government, and fear is being pushed on the people to keep them under control. Ads on TV are threatening to hunt down and deport immigrants, and vicious, damaging lies and propaganda are being spread by that same government. The “Melting Pot” is becoming the “forge,” and we, the people, are being melted down and remolded into weapons meant to destroy each other. Unless we wake up and see that in America, there’s always a choice, in these troubling times, I feel more resolved than ever to use my blessings to lift myself and people that I love up off the ground. I want to use the freedom given to me by those who were more than willing to make the greatest sacrifice of all, and make way for even greater freedoms that the future of our world will partake in. I want my two little sisters to grow up in a world where they can be their authentic selves without fear of judgment or persecution. I want them to grow up in a world that values all the facets of intelligence and education and supports their growth. I want them to live in a world where people aren’t afraid of being wrong, because they’re even more eager to learn. For it is in that world where we are truly free. I don’t know if this world is achievable in my lifetime, but I don't need to know to believe. Freedom to me is this opportunity. The opportunity to apply myself, a black man in America. A man who, if he existed 160 years ago, would not have the tools, the knowledge, or the freedom to say these words to the world. 

Every enslaved man and woman in America fought, endured, and persevered. Despite some once knowing freedom, and others being born with no understanding of the word, they knew they’d overcome someday. Now, I get to live in the days they sang and dreamed and told stories about. Disturbingly, this freedom is under threat of destruction by narratives that perpetuate fear and ignorance, and yet, I’m hopeful. It takes a flame to light a torch, and while we didn’t start the fire, for over 160 years it's been burning. With my ancestor’s conviction, I’ll carry that torch, lighting the path to freedom. 

The High School Essay Contest is a proud element of the Juneteenth Family Day Celebration in Battle Creek. Visit www.JuneteenthBattleCreek.com to learn more.

The High School Essay Contest was sponsored by Kellogg Community College (KCC) and the Battle Creek Coalition for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (BCTRHT)