I believe that both the present and future offer the greatest opportunities and challenges in the history of mankind.

I believe in myself because I believe in more than myself. Like the great men and women of history who made life better for me today, I too want to do something great with my life. I want to return more to my country than I take from it.

If I am to succeed, I must this very day commit myself to preparation. Aware that only as a tree thrusts its roots deeply into the ground can it lift its branches high into the air; I therefore, pledge to throw myself into my school work. I know that President Lincoln was right in his contention that if one studies and prepares, one’s chances will come. Accordingly, I shall listen attentively to my teachers as they transmit their wisdom, insight and knowledge. I pray they will challenge my mind, charge my soul, and instill in me a love of the great, the real, the true and the challenging. But in the end, I believe that, it is I, and I alone that must find out for myself, study the past, analyze the present and dream of the future. For, as with E. Merrill Root, I believe: It is only when man, self-reliant man, stands on his own free of outside support that he feels himself truly free. I elect to choose self-reliance the American way.