The directions were simple: Illustrate your "best day ever." Sabrina Brady of Wisconsin's Sparta High School combined Google's logo with a memorable and moving six-frame story.

This is Google's fourth year running the Doodle 4 Google competition. K-12 students from across the United States submitted artwork between January 14 and March 22. Google selected finalists from each state and asked Google users to vote for a winner from those finalists. You can view all the state finalists here.

Along with each doodle, the young artists submitted brief descriptions of their best days. Brady captioned hers, "When I was 10 years old, my dad came home from war. This was my best day ever."

Brady, 17, will receive a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 technology grant for her school, Sparta High School, in addition to being featured on Google's homepage today. Unsurprisingly, the budding illustrator heads to art school in Minnesota this fall.

Brady's tiny tale seems particularly apropos as the U.S. marks Memorial Day this weekend.

[Image Courtesy of Google]

Bonus: The 10 Most Popular Google Doodles of 2012