2011 Student Writing Awards Booklet - Santa Fe Community College

After breakfast I washed the dishes and took a walk to clear my
head. I slowly inhaled the scent of pine and exhaled looking up into the
clouds so bright.All that I could hear was my feet as they scraped themselves
across the dirt.
“Why God Why me” I shouted.“Answer me damn it, answer
me!” I begged, falling to my knees.“Answer meee!!!”
In the distance ahead I could see our family’s private chapel and
rushed inside.Walking in I respectfully kneeled in front of the altar closing
my eyes, bowing my head, silently praying.“Forgive me father, it’s just I
don’t know what to do! Grandma and grandpa made life look so easy!”
Tears came rolling down my face and I did nothing to stop them. I began
feeling better, I pushed myself up with the palms of my hands and stood
up. As I opened my eyes, I found a stone on the floor in front of me. I
kneeled down to carefully pick it up and discovered that it was a perfect
shaped heart, smooth on one side and rough on the other. I rubbed my
thumb across it several times.
Confusion and anger entered my soul like never before and a feeling
of hopelessness carried consumed my entire being. I wanted an answer
not some stupid rock!!!
Back at the house and depressed, I began peeling potatoes for supper.
I turned on the old record player that grandpa used to play, so that he
could twirl me and grandma around the kitchen. For some odd reason, I
remembered the time grandpa tried to cheer me up after I fell out of the
tree house. Billy was the one who called grandpa, while my cousins
laughed hysterically. As soon as they heard grandpa coming, they ran like
the cowards they were. Grandpa carried me in the house saying,“How’d
you get to be so strong and beautiful, my princess.” I remembered the fear
I experienced thinking that my leg was broken, and I wondered what it
would be like to be a cripple. I sulked for a moment, and then said “I’m
not strong.”
“You sure are, and don’t ever let anyone take that away from you,”
he said. I began rinsing the potatoes and I heard Billy’s voice.
“Khoo coo coo coo!! Khoo coo khoo coo,” Billy called as he
walked into the kitchen.
“You heard me screaming didn’t you” I said, ashamed and
defensively.
“Uha, I think everyone in the entire state heard you. Ha ha ha. I
brought some Tequila, a margarita’d probably do you good.”
“Hey, remember when we were kids, and I fell out of the tree
house” I said.
“Yeah, why”
“Grandpa knew what he was doing when he said that I was
strong.” Billy had a puzzled look on his face. So I explained.
42