My Story/college

My Story - Dustin Daily

Dustin Daily
Fargo North High School

My name is Dustin Daily, and I am a junior on Fargo North High School.  But it wasn’t always like that...just last year I attended South Dakota’s Florence High school with a student count of 300 total, K-12.

You can imagine the shock I had to attend a school of 1,100. The food was better. But I was very unsocial and kept to myself a lot. I had 1 friend. I sat in my room day after day. Until one of my teachers offered for me to go on a trip with the Youth Leadership Program.

I have to say that it was the best decision I ever made. It changed my life. It changed how I look at things. It also changed my passion. I am now dedicated to a life of helping, not playing video games all day. I am now dedicated to make people feel better and look at themselves in a new light.

Let’s wind the clocks back about 4 to 5 months. On August 17th, a bunch of kids and parents around me - T.V. crews and 2 enormous buses, I was terrified. Being a South Dakotan, I don’t get to see them so often. But I still boarded that bus.

I will be honest at first I didn’t think I would make many friends and I’ll just do the work and go back to my boring plain life. But this tour, your kids made it possible for me to say, “I want to better myself.” Change isn’t a bad thing, it made me better, and it can help many more people that are in need to feel better.  For that I thank all of you, parents included.

I have made friends who I would not have had the possibility to meet if it wasn’t for this program. These kids have made my world a better place. This may be crazy but in the short 5 days we were with each other we became a family. We were a bunch of kids who changed the lives of everyone we met.

Last month I attended Fill the Dome. If you do not know about these annual events, it was created by a bunch of kids that dared to dream. A dream that a bunch of high schoolers could change the world doing something as simple some collecting cans of food.

I am proud to say that they did change the world. I am hearing about Fill the Dome project in other states because these kids decided to chase their dream. It was a life changing sight. Hundreds of kids from all around communities came together, regardless of rivals or hate, helped to better the community. A total of 97 tons of food, and 96,0000 dollars. All because people came together with a common purpose.

Fill the Dome is proof, the flood crisis was proof, STLF is proof, this Youth Leadership is also proof that….Everyone can come together regardless of race, school, rich or poor, small or tall, young or old. Everyone has the potential to fill a sandbag, donate some cans. But overall everyone has the potential to change a life. That is what I believe Youth Leadership has done for me. It made me dare to dream.

I recently attended a middle school tour: I was one of the high school leaders. it is also another act of leadership to teach people about leadership. I believe through all the hours we put in helping organizations and people in need.

We gave them a chance to change the way they look at the world. We gave them a vision of no war, no hunger, no fighting, just peace. Through organizations like Youth Leadership and STLF we can achieve that goal.

I have always heard that in the future everything will get worse because our generation is called “The Selfish Generation.” I believe that we can change out generation into “The Givers.” We will give back to the community, we will give back to America, and we will give back to the world.

I was always afraid of the future. The economy is failing, war is erupting, and resources are being used up. But as true as I stand here I believe something that some of you may find crazy. But I believe it as I look at each one of my bus mates, and the possibilities and potential that each one of them hold. I am not scared for the future. I look forward to seeing the accomplishments that we can all make.

View and Read More Recent Story Posts!