For those of you who
don’t know, Young Authors is a celebration of writing sponsored by the North
Carolina Reading Association.
Each year, the association
president chooses a theme that becomes the focus of student and teacher writing.
This year’s theme was “Reflections:
Celebrating the Me I See.”
Each writing is first
judged at the school level, then the county level, and then the state level.
Of the 500 writings
that made it to the state level this year, 300 were selected as state winners.
Saturday was the
state-wide celebration for those winners.
Each winner received a
certificate and a printed book that contained all the winning writings.
On our way home from
the celebration, Heidi the Librarian and I read many of the entries.
Some were funny.
Some moved us to tears.
Some were simple.
Others made us think.
Love poured onto many
of the pages.
Family, friends, school,
and sports.
It was sweet to hear of
moms playing Legos with daughters,
And dads being the best
coaches ever.
But pain bled onto many
of the pages, too.
Divorce, death, rejection,
unrequited love.
It was sad how much
hurt the writers had experienced in their short lives,
And how quickly they
felt they needed to grow up.
One of the most profound
statements we read came from a 9th grade student.
She wrote:
“If I had a song
written by those who hurt me, I’d be its main composer.”
I understand her
statement.
I feel it in my core.
I am my own worst enemy.
Do you understand, too?
Upon reading the book,
one of the moms of a GW student commented:
“You never really know
what is lying on a kid’s heart.”
And she’s right.
We don’t know what’s on
someone’s heart—
Maybe even our own—
Until we give them the
space to write it out.
Good, bad, choppy, smooth,
handwritten or typed, complete or incomplete, proper or poor grammar…
Maybe we all need to
write more,
So that we can
understand more,
And become more,
Than the reflection we
currently see.
Amen.
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