Artist: Abigail McMullan
You finally get to your sleepaway camp and you are scared of literally EVERYTHING, including not making friends, having mean counselors, especially missing family. In other words, you are paranoid of anything that can go wrong. I have two words for those fears: DON'T WORRY.
From Andrew Griffel's "Sleepaway Camp: The Survival Guide"
Edwyn had been resigned to a dreary Tuesday morning working on his latest case. At least it was business-as-usual until his sister appeared in the doorway of his office out of the blue. He thanked the lord above that the detective he worked with had yet to come in for work; having Michel in the mix would only make this coming conflict more troubling. As Alecsandra approached, he could see that the object he had previously assumed to be a pile of clothes in his sister's arms was something much more ominous: a young child, an infant even.
Scholastic Honorable Mention Winner Annabelle Vest’s “Babies and Bothersome Social Altercations”
Artist: Ruby Miles
My other sister just came in the room
She’s strong enough
Maybe she she stole my idea
But that’s not true
I know it’s not true
The idea is just cornered
The idea is just trapped
It got ambushed by writer’s block
From Katerina Stoichkov's "Fox and Hounds"
I hold the rail
of a steamship packed with wandering souls
I hold on for fear I might not prevail
On this harrowing journey
filled with holes
From Violet Widboom's Poetry Live! submission. All participants are here
Black Future
I am the night
I am the sky
I am whatever you wish to define
I am the future
I am not free
I am the one who wishes to just be
From Arielle Crawshay-Williams "Black Future"
"Then finally as I stared towards the golden sky, observing the sun fall over the powdered mountain tops, we turned a corner into Lamar Valley. It was jaw dropping, and I thought the plants I water atop my windowsill were impressive, it was the most beautiful assortment of creeks, rivers, trees and shrubs ever. The sun seemed to slow down at the sight of the valley, waiting to lower below the mountain peaks just to get one last look at the winding hills."
From Clark Nystrom's "Winning Yellowstone"
“Stay.” The door slams behind him as he leaves the house.
What about me?
From Katerina Stoichkov's winning Rotary Contest entry
“The varsity team is Steve’s only chance at getting a scholarship,” Steve’s mom explained to the coach. “He’s trained ever since he was a baby. Now he trains harder than ever to make the varsity team. He’s always loved swimming, and now he can use his passion to help him get into a good college. It’s his only chance, as we can’t possibly afford it on our own.”
From Jacob Nirenberg winning Rotary Contest entry
"Many kids don’t have the same educational opportunities as you. This ... [e]ducation[al] inequality is a problem that has extreme impacts on the U.S, and it should be solved at its core by people in charge instead of using alternative solutions to pretend it is a non-issue."
From Henry Goldman's "Education Inequality: Big Problems, Pointless Solutions, and Extreme Effects"
"Back when I was a child, I was a troublemaker. I always used to push glass bottles off the counter or try to ride my brother’s dog or try to eat frijoles out of the fridge. I never thought about any of my actions, I just did what my instincts told me to do, like I ran around the house and jumped on the bed. My mom would always scold me and tell me to never do it again, but she knew I would do it again. I was unpredictable, no one knew what I would do or say."
From Emilia Guevara's "Childhood"
Innocence
I always thought the story of Peter Pan was funny
The part where he didn’t want to grow up
I used to dream of growing up
Becoming indestructible
Important
And tough
Little did I know that all eggs have cracks
And sometimes there's no one to bandage them
Kiss your wounds
Because now you have responsibilities
Expected to uphold
You try not shatter
From Scarlett Siotkas' poem "Innocence"
Artist: Caelin Wieber
and I was far too young
to understand the car was moving
not the sun
I didn’t care when I was nine
cause every blade of grass
was mine
From Audrey Famer's "soaked sneakers"
It All Fades Away
I used to run lemonade
Stands,
Do ding-dong-ditch,
And play cops and robbers.
I remember those days
It feels like a dream
I had so long ago.
The past is the past.
The now is the now.
There’s no going back.
As you get further, it all fades to black.
Lydia Andrus
Artist: Peter Glasser
One day,
24 hours.
Hundreds of thousands of people,
Filling over 300 skyscrapers.
From Francisco Carlos' "Signs"
"Austria-Hungary had attempted to force Serbia out of the war in the First Serbian Campaign. They lined artillery along the Danube and bombarded the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Austrian troops crossed the river to encounter Serbian troops positioned on high ground. They were mowed down and were forced back into Austria. This was the first Allied victory of the war. Weeks later, the armies regrouped, this time capturing Belgrade and much of Serbia. A counter-attack at the battle of Kolubara forced them out of Serbia, ending the campaign. Austria had 224,000 dead, wounded, or missing, compared to Serbia’s loss of 170,000 dead, wounded, or missing. After winter, Austria prepared for a larger invasion along with Bulgaria and Turkey."
From an anonymous essay called "The Kingdom of Serbia during World War I"
Her sneakers brushed the dirty gray floor,
Her puffy red eyes searched,
desperately trying to find a seat.
She spotted a bench, big enough for three,
but for her, just enough for her bags.
Kayla leaned against the cracked glass window,
tears streaming down her face,
fingers fidgeting, chin quivering.
The train car was cramped and dark,
rattling all the way down.
She didn’t mind, barely even noticed.
After twelve hours of sobbing,
the train pulled into Grand Central.
From Thea Yolen's "No Tears Left," a Poetry Live! submission. All participants are here
Artist: Charlotte Romita
"Turn after turn, I kept my foot pressed down on the accelerator. My kart hugged the curves of the track, the tires gripping the asphalt just enough to keep me on the edge of control without going over it. I could feel the heat building under the hood, the engine growling louder as I pushed it harder and harder, and... I could feel myself slipping away from the pack. One by one, I overtook the other drivers, each passing a small victory, a small confirmation that all the hours of training had been worth it."
From Luis Gonzalez Lopez's "Rivals Rewritten: Striving for Success"
I rose up from my coffin, skin flaking from my arms, like snow drifting from the sky, my dried-up back creaking with the effort of lifting the heavy granite cover.
Slowly, I walked on solid ground, my feet shaking with instability.
A wolf howled in the distance, and an owl hooted in the thick canopy of red and orange leaves overhead.
I started tumbling clumsily over graves, trying to blindly find my way in the dark and eerie graveyard. Even though I was a ghoul myself, this place still gave me the creeps.
Paul Mezy
Artist: Anthony Garcia
“Ray, listen,” Terry said, “I know you love running, but you have to stop dreaming about the past. You’ll never be happy that way. Even you can’t run 150 miles in 5 hours!”
To this, I meekly replied: “What about with the Running Rig? That’s possible…”
He stared at me for some time in disbelief, and finally replied: “It costs $2 million. We can't even dream of getting our hands on one of those.” With that, he left, leaving me to my morose thoughts.
Suddenly, something quite radical, but plausible struck me: what if I built a Running Rig of my own? In a daze, I thought back to the days when I could run free whenever I wanted, and for the first time after many years of despair, I realized there was hope again. Out of all the gloom in my heart, a small spark was lit, which would go on to fuel a raging inferno of determination that would get me through to the finish.
From Michal Vaculin's Rotary Club submission
"It had been thirteen years since it happened. Thirteen years we had been infected... he was losing hope we would ever see each other again without being surrounded by armed guards. I would have been lying If I said my hope was not dwindling too."
From Jacob Roth's "Through the Gate"
Artist: Myles Smith
"Imagine you’re on the plane to a place you’ve never been before, with dreams as big as the sun to make a living for yourself in the “Land of Opportunity.”
This is exactly the story of a man named Ivo Voynov. Ivo Voynov immigrated to America at the age of 19 from Bulgaria, a country in Eastern Europe. He had 5,000 dollars sewn into his pocket and a million dreams he was going to work to the bone to achieve.
Read more of Carr Voynov's winning Rotary essay about his dad
A View From Afar
I watch from afar as venom spits out of his tongue,
My fingers impaling my palms - my tongue on fire from biting it,
I hear the bitterness of his words,
I feel sick to my stomach,
How could one human say this about another?
Dirt fills the air from all of the lies he has told,
I hug my Jewish star close to my neck,
My head blurry
The only thought in my head is
We are not monsters, we are humans
I shake out of fear for my family, for my religion
All of sudden, he moves his arm
The whole crowd roars,
I don’t get it, it's not like he has a wand he is not a magician,
So how can one person manage to run a country?
Finally the rally is over he steps off stage,
I run I run so far feeling the wind push the emotions away
I run for what?
For fear of getting caught?
For looking different?
I soon realized that life was only going to get harder from here.
Lila W. Dlugacz
The Poem of Revenge
Bloodlust is sharp and deadly like a blade.
Vendettas and fantasies are something you must evade.
I know it’s really hard; I filled with lots of pain.
But all the progress you made isn’t in vain.
Vengeance and revenge can make you go insane,
Succumbing into bloodthirsty monsters - that's what I became.
But all of us are really a saint.
Because not everything is calm and quaint!
So don’t focus on revenge and start anew.
Don’t bite grudges that you can’t chew!
Cameron Wong
“According to Elie Wiesel, ‘[T]o be indifferent to… suffering is what makes the human being inhuman’...This piece of Wiesel’s speech means that not caring about that suffering is extremely terrible… The purpose of this part of the speech [shows how being] indifferent is one of the worst things a person can be.”
From Jack Scoma's response to Elie Wiesel's "Perils of Indifference” speech