All writing published for Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018. See Competition
Iexsha Mendez (Philippines) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
about 1 year ago
Marerider (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
An eleven year old girl named Violet sits at her round Sunday School table. She looks up as the teacher walks in. He smiles and greets his class. Violet smiles back at him and sends up a prayer that the class will go well. Around the table there also sits five rambunctious boys. This is how it always is, while all five may not always be there, Violet is always the only girl. It has been this way since they...
almost 2 years ago
julia.hula (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
I first met her in elementary school, nine years ago. She had sat across from me, the edges of our desks pushed so close to each other, they overlapped and trembled like tectonic plates moved by a massive earthquake.
That was a simile she proudly said herself, when after countless attempts of retreating into the remaining space in the commodious classroom, I questioned the compressed state of our desks with a bewildered stare and tilt of my head. After...
almost 2 years ago
Johanna (Singapore) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
Sometimes, I think I'm ugly.
There. I've said it.
See, I don't exactly care about my appearance. But sometimes, when I look into the mirror, I can't help but see the flaws that don't worry me when I can't see myself. I can't help searching for the wrongs of my face, the imperfection and the faults. I can't help but compare myself to others.
If you look through my childhood drawings, you'll find a lot of these: little drawings of...
almost 2 years ago
Anailene22 (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
A change means to make or become different,Well life change all around you,Starting from when you were little;wearing diapers then when you were scared of the dark and couldn’t sleep because you thought a ghost was in the closet,to when your parents think you old enough to do everything on your own, but your actually not .See me:I’m trying to make a change to where our voice should be heard and when I said “our” I mean teenagers, we always...
about 2 years ago
Sruthi (Australia) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
about 2 years ago
loveelise44 (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
I was so so happy to have the chance to see Grandma. She had been diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer and since I was only five, I had an idea that she was only days away from dying. If I would have realized that, I would have been crying. Actually, I had never spent a lot of time with my grandma since she lived in The Netherlands, and I lived in Arkansas.
When we arrived in The Netherlands we...
about 2 years ago
Bekahholland (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
I love the idea of making change.
Shaping, shifting, moving, mixing. Integrating, striving, driving, determining, to impact those around me.
Will it happen through a smile? Can it happen with a hug?
Maybe a conversation?
So many people are depressed.
Lonely.
Sad, hurt, broken, confused.
Lost and angry and disappointed in their world.
I want to see people fulfilled.
Chasing their destiny, running after their dreams.
I want people to know they are known, to feel they are felt.
That...
about 2 years ago
Chayma Abbassi (Tunisia) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
A change ,
it's a word that often comes to my mind and probably everyone's mind and I think that goes back to the fact that everything is changing around us : people , opinions , thought , feelings , fears and friends too
and so , our world is changing
When we were young we used to think that darkness is the most scary thing , but we realize that there is so many other things to fear and...
about 2 years ago
Dhwani1 (India) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
about 2 years ago
Rasheed Freckleton (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
I had no business being at my cousins’ house; nothing good ever came of it. I was supposed to be at school learning the steps to pass my AP exam. Yet there I was, learning the steps to roll a blunt. Step 1: Grind the weed. Step 2: Prep the blunt wrap. Step 3: Wet the wrap. Step 4: Fill it up. Step 5: Roll the blunt wrap. Step 6: Seal the blunt wrap. The first six steps seemed so...
about 2 years ago
Knightmare (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
Im finally awake now,
I feel like I've never been.
I forgot what normal was.
For all these years I've been drowning, suffocating under the sadness, and I didn't even know it. The loneliness and suffering became norm. My twisted spirit was glamoured, my mind denying what's right in front of me.
Sometimes I wonder where I'd be right now if I had never been depressed. Would things be different? Would I be different? Would I have the same friends?...
about 2 years ago
tabloidjoy (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
“It is now time for the parent dance.”
A man’s voice boomed over the sound system. The gym floor opened up to the fathers and mothers making their way to their beloved kids.
I would have rathered it had been time for any other dance. I would have rathered danced the cha-cha, swing and tango a million more times before this.
One by one, boys lined up with their mothers, girls partnered up with their fathers. The music started...
about 2 years ago
Serenity L (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
Lighting storms in Laos made me realize there’s a strange allure to danger. It’s the held breath and shot of adrenaline, the shaky hands and the exhilaration of something greater, something so out of reach and yet too close, that catches on and holds interest. I remember my first lightning storm when I was four years old, and already, I was hooked to that sensation. I remember hiding out in a corner of the room, the electricity down, the house...
about 2 years ago
Madeline Way (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
If I could go back in time to tell myself some advice, It would be: "Raise your voice, Don't back away from challenges because of fear of judgment. Embrace your self." Growing up I was bullied, But thankfully they never punched me, or anything like that, It was only worded wounds. But still, words can sting, hurt, and sadly kill. It's not my fault for my personality, I never asked for them to hurt me. I should have...
about 2 years ago
@iraizpoetry (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
Bullying, you might think yes its wrong. It is certainly, have you been bullied because I have been. Today I will raise my voice and say it stops here! I have made a change in my life even if it took too much out of it. Friends you might think they will never hurt you maybe that's right. I was hurt, made fun of without even knowing. I thougt it was okay, but it wasn't. Made fun of by the...
about 2 years ago
@iraizpoetry (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
Bullying, you might think yes its wrong. It is certainly, have you been bullied because I have been. Today I will raise my voice and say it stops here! I have made a change in my life even if it took to much out of it. Friends you might think they will never hurt you maybe that's right. I was hurt, made fun of without even knowing. I thougt it was okay, but it wasn't. Made fun of by the...
about 2 years ago
katpar19 (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
Born Without Creativity
Like most elementary school students, my notebook was more like a canvas. In other words, along with my homework consisting of division and multiplication there were unceasing scribbles ranging from patterns to people. Many times my daydreams were accompanied by the movement of my pencil across the paper similar to a mini Van Gogh. Although, I was not going end up with a severed ear, I had already decided that my best artistry came from not listening...
about 2 years ago
Saraknu (United Kingdom) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
about 2 years ago
Divinity Blackwell (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
about 2 years ago
schottthroughtheheart (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
Let's go back in time.
Set the scene: February tenth, 2002. A baby is born to two loving parents in a Cleveland hospital, and given the name "Aria". They are assigned the gender of "female", and wrapped up in a pink blanket, in a pink incubator, with a little pink hat on their head. Their parents have known their sex for a while, but they still feel consumed with joy at the sight of their wonderful...
about 2 years ago
ria17sep (India) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
The atmosphere echoed with midafternoon bustle as all the fast-paced vehicles halted at the behest of a stoplight. Shuffling on the backseat of the car, I stared into distance and nothing but, soft, radio music filled the air. A sudden tap on the window startled us. A frail, little girl with an elongated, freckled face peered into the car expectantly, shielding her eyes from the sweltering, July sunrays with her pale hands. After I lowered the window, she stood on...
about 2 years ago
Morgan Cook (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
You know that feeling when your siblings drive you crazy, but you love them anyway? Like you might tell them that you hate them but how can you hate someone that you grew up with? That’s how I felt about my best friends, Lizzy and Eli. They were as close as two twins could be. We shared a home twice as children. We grew up clinging to one another for comfort, falling in love together, learning each other's secrets...
about 2 years ago
colorfulmlee (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
I have never seen my mom with hair. Because for as long as I could remember, my mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer so she would either sport her bald head or a wig. My father, sister and I unconsciously clung onto hope that the cancer has to get worse before my mother could get better. But all too soon, her strength could not keep the sickness at bay, and she passed away when I was 10. She was...
about 2 years ago
J. R. B. (United States) published:
PROMPT: Personal Essay Competition: Making Change 2018
You ask if I am implementing change, or experiencing it. And I can answer yes. Yes, my world is changing. As a teenager, I feel like a spinning top on a lazy Susan, and my hands are covered in Vaseline. There are moments I can grasp onto and then I am thrust back into the cyclic evolution. But the way I feel the impact of change most clearly is an intense yearning, stemming from an ache in my sternum.
...
about 2 years ago