This piece is a dramatized depiction of my own inner monologue. It’s meant to display the struggles with intrusive thoughts and an inner monologue that seems to just hate you sometimes. But it’s meant to end on a hopeful note. I guess I wrote this piece to see if there’s anyone who can relate to how I feel sometimes about my inner monologue.

Our script "The Letter" is an innocent love story built from friendship. It is relatable to anyone who has missed someone who moved away, or lost someone. This is a piece that will make you feel for the characters, and is a fun and romantic read. Romance is the top selling book genre and most profitable fiction book topic, so for those interested will enjoy the read.

My piece is about a summer love at the beach. The poem describes the boys features and how they relate back to where they spent time together. Its a short, sweet teenage romance, on the sunlit beach.

My submission is a poetry collection entitled Divinity, which is based on the idea of the present in the religion of Christianity: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this collection, the story is shown through the perspective of the Son. Starting with the Father, the Son recounts the abuse he faces at the hands of his Father for being gay. In his poem, the Son describes the internal conflict he faces between his sexuality and the religion enforced upon him. In the Holy Spirit, the Son grapples with the idea of salvation and tries to repent for his sins. I chose to write this collection because this is a deeply personal struggle many people face, regardless of religion. There is a schism between those who are open about their sexuality in society and those who are more devout in their religious beliefs. Through this divide, there is a conflict for those caught in the middle. While I do not have an answer for this issue, we could all be more understanding of each other's identities and embrace the multifacetedness.

This is a piece showing the expectations of womanhood and the struggles that come with that. It concludes with the statement that comparison is ugly.

These poems all center around the different emotions one can feel when in love. I infuse the intricacy and the gut-wrenching feelings of this emotion in an array of in-depth and complicated sensations. When I write, I have to get ideas on the page as fast as possible before I sit there trying to remember all the thoughts I just had, I cross my fingers that it sounds as good on paper as it sounds in my head.

My sister and I have grown up the same, followed the same path, and could even, at times, read each other’s minds, yet we have become vastly different people. We had the same eyes, the same nose, the same freckles, but as I grew older and she followed suit, our differences were exposed and we grew apart. The relationship between sisters is nuanced and ever changing, but with me and my sister we could always depend on each other when we really needed it. This piece is based on a mundane, but significant interaction between me and my sister when she messed up when dying her hair. Through the sisters Amy and Maddie’s conversations it is revealed that Maddie is insecure about how people perceive her. Amy and Maddie, much like me and my sister, don’t often talk about not superficial things, so this is a profound realization for Amy. Amy knows now that Maddie is insecure and unhappy, and she wants to support her. Amy does not know how to help Maddie, so she does the one thing she can, which is fixing Maddie’s hair carefully. This piece shows the strong bond between sisters, even when they have grown apart, and I wrote this piece because I wanted to capture the moment when I realized this in my own relationship with my sister.

FULL CIRCLE uses the unspecified "you" and "i" pronouns heavily to illustrate the dialogue between my present, past, and future selves -- especially within the context of recovering from an extended depressive period. Within the collection, I explore the fear of "losing myself", the struggle of changing, and the hope of success. Having overcome that era of my life, I'm able to look back with compassion and sympathy. My greatest and most impossible dream of getting better has become a reality -- bringing me full circle.

This poem is about the initial euphoria of relationships but how over time the most tumultuous and darkest moments humans can bring out the biggest flaws in each other. Even after healing takes place little details still bring back memories of those moments and it becomes brutally clear that whether you like it not, that time of your life has left an imprint on your heart. And you have a choice: find peace in the good parts or simmer in the bad memories. Though the poem is written as if the main character is talking about someone else, I originally wanted it to serve as a metaphor for the main character’s relationship with themselves and their internal struggle with learning to foster a healthy relationship with their body and mind.

This piece was a flash fiction inspired by my own experiences growing up around Christianity. It depicts the guilt that comes with any religion that holds strict or often misinterpreted beliefs. As a young person still learning how to comprehend the world, the concept of religion can be quite daunting and even traumatizing in some cases. This creates a very degrading and damaging mindset and this story depicts a worst case scenario that I have thankfully grown far from experiencing.

Lost and found of sound is a combination of three poems about the connection between emotion and sound. Throughout life we hear so many sounds, footsteps, voices, the wind. The familiarity of sound can be calming, or it could cause panic, how you feel about it is up to you. The subjectiveness of sound, especially music, has always intrigued me because it can tell you a lot about a person and how they would perceive different situations. I like to listen to things to calm me down, birds singing, music, the leaves rustling, the poem is inspired by moments I experienced using the bass and rhythms around me to escape problematic situations.

I struggled with my body and self image. I wrote this poem to better show my feelings and vocalize my experience. The hope is for others going through similar struggles to put less pressure on themselves. To grow and mature and accept.

I was given a place, a time, an object and a scenario to create a story, and although it is a little messy, I had to be creative and think of whatever come to my mind. This story was written around the time of Halloween and a big inspiration I had while writing this story was Edger Allen Poe. The story was also about Two times longer, but I unfortunately had to revise my work. I don't really mind if I win or not but thank you to this organization for giving me this opportunity to express my creativity.

When I was writing this poem, I decided to write it because I had been learning about prejudice in school. I was thinking about it while walking home from school one day and I noticed the nature around me; the rain puddles and the sun. I realized that this could relate to prejudice because the rain puddles symbolized the impacts of prejudice, the sun represented the peace that occurs in world without prejudice, and the rain drops are the constant prejudice that never leaves the world. I wrote this poem because I wanted to show how we can only advance as a species if we cooperate with each other.

Life can be as simple as lemons, whether it be a lesson that good things must be earned, or a reminder that not everything needs to be perfect.

In my short story, a technology has been created with a promise: to give people the ability to share their past experiences. However, this promise and the resulting attachment to it have created a dangerous storm -- where side effects are willing to be overlooked for the sake of the image that's been created.

Have you ever met someone that complains about something all the time? Were you once in this spot that you think that you couldn't get out of?

Ever since fifth grade, I've loved to write. Such an investment is reminiscent of reading but with more liberty. For years, I've loved to explore the fantastical and ethereal. This is a preview of a book I plan to flesh out and publish.

I selected the song “I Remember Clifford” because of the emotional range the piece allows. The history of the song is about the short life of the legendary Clifford Brown that passed away tragically at the age of 23. The song takes me to a place where I get lost in the music and my horn seems to take over.

Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 was composed in 1781 when he was only 25 years old. Mozart composed this piece to perform with pianist Josepha Auernhammer. The piece is composed in galant style, which refers to a style of music that prioritized listener enjoyment and simplicity rather than musical complexity.