This week, we present responses to the challenges of General Writing and Nerves: First days at school, camp, a new job can be nerve-wracking. Write about a memorable first day experience of your own or make one up, whether funny, mortifying or sad.
Prompt: Nerves
First day of school… at home
By Marina Sprague
Age 16, Chelsea
It’s a first for me. Yet it is not really a first.
Today I start my first day of grade 11… at home. After spending every school year in the same small school, it is extremely odd for me not to go back there. Homeschooling is a lot different. Yet it feels like I am still in the middle of summer.
I miss my school. I miss my friends and teachers. I miss all of it. But everything has to change at some point.
I feel nervous despite being in my own home. My mom set up all of my assignments for this week. She has to work so I am basically teaching myself. I have to be responsible and manage my time wisely. I guess this is good practice for the future, but it is still overwhelming.
I can’t help but feel a little lost without the normal routine of an actual school. There is no meeting new people or new teachers, no getting into the rhythm of going to the multiple classrooms and no reconnecting with friends. Despite all this sadness, I am excited too. My classes are geared toward my interests and I can learn at my own pace. I can also take electives that my school couldn’t provide for me.
Maybe changing things up is a good thing after all.
Prompt: General
A sweet betrayal
By Eden Anne Bauer
Age 14, Hanover
When cuckoos laugh and somersault,
perhaps I’ll love again.
However, it takes more than birds
to get a heart to mend.
Retreating footsteps have, since then,
still echoed in my mind.
The irony of what you did
still hides, haunts and reminds.
When flowers grow after they die
and bloom in winter snow,
perhaps my ears will cease to block
the words which hurt me so.
Propelling anger as a tool,
you drove me against myself.
I was too scared to trust what I knew,
while ne’er guessing you were something else.
The day you said goodbye
you left that terrible note.
My heart was shattered,
cut into pieces by your words –
you took, first, my trust as the hors d’oeuvre.
Next, you stole my mind, my thoughts,
and stirred them in your cauldron ‘til
they bubbled and muddled, and became clear –
then you had no arguments to fear.
Finally, you had my heart –
all to yourself, you cunning thief!
Then suddenly, you were gone.
For you were a dark chocolate bar,
a treat I’d found and saved, and ah!
I read the words advertised clearly
on what contained the sweet I loved dearly.
But when you were gone, I finally found
the tiny text no customer bothers to read.
Do you know what it said?! I bet you do
(though you’re now in my stomach, it’s true).
The expiration date was far past due.
What vile poison had been wrought in you?
Who could ever sell a treat so good
that, clearly, had such a dark childhood?
What could leave chocolate so affected
as to make sure its sweet life was ended
not three days since I bought it from the store?
I say, three days! How come not more?
Yet nevertheless, here I still am.
Full of chocolate, content and still alive.
Maybe those numbers are all just lies?
Hmm, in that case… nice surprise!
The chocolate was yummy, so delicious.
I would buy another in a heartbeat, any minute!
Watch out chocolate, here I come!
I cannot wait longer to eat some.
Dead-life
By Makenzi Edwards
Age 17, Chelsea
I am a molecule in the black abyss.
There is an invisible glass wall in the distance.
No matter how much I try to swim to the wall,
it never gets closer.
No matter how much I try to swim away from the wall,
it never gets farther.
There is no moving forward or backward.
I am alone here — sort of.
Through the wall on my right,
there are the voices of those I love, muffled.
Through the wall on my left,
there are voices of my deceased family.
But I can’t see anything.
I am completely blinded.
I never thought that death could be like this…
or the afterlife, for that matter.
It’s so peaceful and quiet.
But weirdly enough, I’m not sad.
I was told I would be happy.
I could watch over my family,
and I could see my grandchildren grow.
But I just see the endless black,
growing thicker and thicker.
But I am not sad, or mad and happy.
I am nothing, just molecules in the black.
At least I can hear my daughter laugh.
How could this be the afterlife,
if I am not living after death?