Wow! We’ve been late before, but never this late! The judges have finally reached a consensus on the winner of our Winter 2010 Scholarship. This is always a difficult, but personally rewarding, endeavor for our judges. We want to thank each of you who participated for challenging us with your responses and also for your patience while we selected the winner.

The winner of the Winter 2010 OP Loftbed $500 Scholarship Award is K. Vega. Our winner will be working toward a degree in Psychology at Ithaca College in New York. Her answers to the questions were as follows:

Tell us about the coolest object you’ve ever found.
Time had delicately aged the smooth paper turning its once white surface to wine. The letter crinkled under my touch. The writing was old. Written with an elegance that could have only been penned decades ago, back in a time when penmanship was an art to be showcased. My eyes flickered across the page. My heart took on a new quickened pace of its own before I finished reading. All my life I’d always wondered about my family’s history but had never learned much past the lives of my grandparents but this . . . This was it. A single letter penned by my great grandfather chronicling all he knew about our past in the hopes of touching the future.

Tell us your favorite story about your favorite pet.
The living room was quiet . . . too quiet. Despite the commotion streaming from the television something was missing. My eyes flickered across the dimly lit room. Each of my parents sat sleepily upon the two recliners while my younger sister lay sprawled across the couch. Everyone was here. But something was definitely amiss. After a few moments of thoughtfulness it hit me. Where was our dog? “Has anyone seen Winston?” He was no where to be found. “Wait, I think I hear something . . .” The sound was coming from underneath the recliner. I stooped down beside it. Just then I saw the small, adorable- black nose of our terrier sticking out from underneath the couch.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go and why would you go there?
Mars. The trip would definitely be out of this world and a truly unforgettable experience. I’d love to be able to see first hand the remarkable features of the alien landscape and visit sites like the famous face on Mars and its awesome mountain, Olympus Mons, the tallest known volcano in our solar system. Another reason why I’d love to visit Mars is because I’d love to be able to settle the question of whether there really is other intelligent life out there once and for all and what better way to settle the question than to visit the fourth rock from the sun myself.

Filed under: Scholarship by OP Loftbed