Our task when we select the award winners is to judge how well the writers have expressed in words what has affected them personally and how they overcame their difficulties. The first criterion is thus how effectively the writer has expressed his or her feelings of distress in a limited number of words.
In Miki Tanabefs Otsuki Prize-winning essay, there are two different catalysts for her emotion: her family and her students. Caught between them, she fights a battle with herself that almost leads her to suffer a breakdown. This essay, in particular, describes in detail the process by which she met the emotional challenge of reading Braille, how she mustered the courage to step up on the teacherfs platform and how a studentfs comment helped reveal to her the true value of living.
Kumiko Tanbafs runner-up essay, "A Ray of Light", shows how she is moving forward in her life by changing the way she takes in information and learning to use a Braille display. The way she learns how to gather information for herself gives the reader hope. I could sense her quiet passion being passed on to her young studens.
The Highly Commended essay by Akira Yamamoto is called "May It Play Forever, The Inspiring Song of My Life." From this essay, I gained a sense of the sheer tenacity of which people are capable. The essay describes a man who brought back the precious sound in his head that makes his heart dance and that he thought hefd lost?the sound of the narimono playing at a danjiri festival in Senshu, Osaka.
"What I Can Do," the Highly Commended essay by Yoko Kanbayashi, draws a lively picture based on her experiences touching the hearts of children. It also skillfully describes the joy those children feel in discovering the value of their lives through her words and actions. Real communication, which she believes is vanishing from homes and society, is nurtured by such efforts as hers.
To Yuuki Fujinawa and Tomoyo Takaki: you both started your essays very well. Please keep following the dreams you described in your essays.
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