ServiceScape is pleased to announce the winner of the 2019 Scholarship Contest: Olga Okoulova, from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Olga completed a Certificate in Business Administration at the University of Victoria in the Fall 2019 and is planning to pursue a Masters of Global Business at the University of Victoria this January 2020.
You can find her winning submission below. We hope you enjoy it and we look forward to reading more great essays for our 2020 Scholarship.
Writing seems old-fashioned, doesn't it? Sending letters in the mail and waiting patiently for a response that you can't track or be notified of when it arrives. Learning shorthand in order to take notes during a two-hour-long lecture so that your hand doesn't cramp when the professor decides to give hints on what might be tested on in your upcoming exam.
Do people still remember how to address letters? And isn't it much quicker to take notes on your laptop?
With a new generation of technology available at our fingertips, it's easy to believe that the power of the written word has been losing strength. That we've outgrown in. That there are faster and easier ways to spread and receive information; through pictures and videos, TV series and documentary films.
But what about that feeling, when you get a birthday card and you get to read a message that your best friend would never have had the courage to say out loud? Or receiving that "I miss you" text from the person that you love? Or devoting your entire night to making flash cards for a test, and realizing, by the time you've actually started to memorize the words, that you already remember them?
Even in today's digital age, writing continues to be fundamental to everything that we do. Whether it's transcribed with a pen on a piece of paper or opened as a text message on a cell phone, writing has the power to make or break our day, to challenge our perspective, and to teach us. It seems so simple, a couple of words scribbled down on a piece of paper – "I'm sorry" or "see you later" or, very simply, "I love you" – but where would we be without them?