“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.” – Helen Keller

If there is one thing that has characterized The President Project more than anything else, it is optimism. It bleeds through our videos, through our staff meetings, through our Facebook page, and through the comments on our website and YouTube channel. We know that getting the President of the United States to speak at our graduation is a very weighty ordeal. It cannot happen simply because we want it to or because we have won many awards. It will happen if we are optimistic.

And, although we are optimistic, we can’t function on that alone — we know that making this happen will require considerable effort. We have put in tons: setting up the website, writing content for the website, producing videos, doing interviews, meeting with politicians, organizing voter registration drives, and more, every single week. We are optimistic that our efforts will bear fruit.

And so far, we’ve borne nothing but. Each success of ours — especially our videos and our TV appearances — makes me more and more optimistic about the direction and future of our project. We are, I think, a case study in confidence.

I don’t just mean the staff members, although we’re certainly not lacking optimism in the slightest! I mean everyone. Because I am a President Project staff member, my friends and teachers often speak to me as if I am an insider, excitedly asking me if I can give them any clues as to the next ‘special announcement’ that we hint about on our Facebook page, or how close I personally think we are to our ultimate goal (very, of course!) It’s very uplifting that my so many people support us so much. Our appearance on WHAS garnered a spate of congratulatory comments from many people, and Manual pride seems to be growing along with Manual optimism.

Incidentally, I’ve learned from doing research for the President Project that optimism actually ties in to other times in Manual’s history. Regardless of your feelings about the President Project itself, Manual certainly has reason to be optimistic: we have come a long way since the climate of race riots we had in 1972, with which most students today (including, for a while, me) are not familiar.

Alll in all, I am really excited about the project and I am nothing but optimistic about it. We’re doing something we can believe in, and I am truly glad to be a part of it.