I have always been a flower lover. Combining my love for flowers, literature, and poignant tales, I wrote 'Gift of the Wind'. The idea for the story came to me very suddenly one day, completely out of the blue. There is a quote from the famous poet Rumi that goes, ''While the mind sees only boundaries, Love knows the secret way there". In my story, the protagonist, like me, takes this quote to heart.

These three poems are inspired by a desire to live in a world where people question everything more deeply, have a greater interest in philosophy and the underlying layers of life, and value curiosity.

It Spreads is a poem I made last school year. I was inspired by the HBO show, “The Last of Us” based onthe game of the same title.I found this shows unique take on zombies to be very inspiring, and it got me interested in zombie apocalypse stories. I mainly focused on the loss of humanity and control one would face if they were to be infected, rather than the survivor’s story which is commonly told.

i don't really have a process, i just wright when i'm in the mood to write

I wrote this piece in my Creative Writing Workshop class, going through multiple rounds of peer feedback. My goal was to bring to light the fear of calling out your friends or peers when saying a micro-aggression when you know they intend fun or are just toying around. This occurs more often than people realize, and we must act more courageously. I know the cowardice of the situation and the regret of realizing that you could’ve said something. School administration is used to diminishing the act of microaggressions because they may also see it as a tease and don’t realize the severe impact it can have on the mental health of minority students. They also play into the fear of speaking up because they don't want to be deemed ‘overreacting.’ Microaggressions push minorities into a box where they have little room to grow and remain submissive to the stereotypes forced upon them. High school is the central hive of shaping the minds of the future; therefore, we need to hold people accountable for all harmful behavior.

I wrote this piece my junior year of high school. It's based off an experience I had when I was very stressed out about my school work and my social life.

I wrote these poems to help understand the balance of light and dark. In a lot of media, light is representative of good, and darkness representative of bad or evil. I wanted to explore the good that lurks in the shadows, and the light that isn't always positive.

The idea for this poem came to me last minute while I was thinking back on an old apartment that my family and I used to live in. Every time I stepped into the bathroom, I was frustrated and scared and immediately concerned for my health as well as my families for the reason that my lungs were weak at that time and my grandmother was on a respirator. Therefore, this piece of artwork depicts my personal experiences and feelings towards the circumstances I was in. The words in this poem are very important to me and close to home in ways that I can not describe verbally, so I have released my feelings through writing.

I wrote this piece while thinking of the abandoned tunnels and architecture that exist under cities.

This poem is me reaching out to my mother, I have trouble with communicating what I need when I need it. In the past I would just shut down and hide my needs from everyone around me. During the time I was making this poem I was in one of these shutdowns, I felt that I needed a way to express myself. I decided to write a letter to my mom, I wrote it as if I wasn't yet born and it was more of an instructional letter on how to raise me. This poem has what makes me, me. It has both good and bad. My fears and my goals. I based it off of my experiences that I had to deal with and grow from. It has a reference to suicide.

I wrote this microfiction piece about the pressure of femininity.

As it says in the poem, I really was not sure what to write for this piece. I felt like I really wanted to put an idea down but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was I was trying to express. Finally I decided to just sit down and write. What I created ended up being one of my favorite things I've ever written.

This poem is about my passion for the ocean which has been one of the view things that has remained constant since my youth, and something that inspires me and my creativity everyday.

The internal battle held by women to determine our worth holds us in a parallel to fruit, specifically pit fruit. The idea that the fruit can be bruised and injured, the pit holding the seed of growth representing maternity, and so much more, nestles itself to the perfect metaphor. I found myself feeling very strongly about this subject and was drawn to writing about it- and displaying that raw and almost fearful emotion through it.

This piece is to forgive myself for the forgiveness I owe myself. I have been putting myself through a lot and holding myself from the truth. I am ready to move forward; this piece was a love letter to myself. It is okay to be imperfect and not live up to standards because, either way, I am worthy of myself.

This is an excerpt from a story I’m writing about a girl named Winnie who feels like the only place she belongs is the world of her imagination, where magic is real and people are kind to her.

This piece was based on a story my mother told me about a close friend she made when she was a young adult. It was a lesson she used throughout my childhood to give an example of why I should never change who I am for someone. She never hated on her friend or diminished her, but it was clear in the example that all that ever came from it was losing a sense of yourself. I have always thought about this as I grew up because there were many times when I wanted to change or become different based on who I was around or who I was with at the time. But I always thought back on this example and how making that a habit would serve me no good for the rest of my life.

Endling is a piece that I worked on at the start of the school year, it was originally a micro-fiction that I wasn't too proud of. Once I heard about Creative Youth Awards, I knew that I wanted to be proud of this piece and make it better. I changed this piece into a short story because it had the idea but not the execution. Endling is about a person that has their homeland attacked, and destroyed, and how they were the sole survivor, or endling. I wanted to create a piece where it had an emotional touch, but also a dark ending. I feel proud about this piece and I am grateful that I found out about Creative Youth Awards so I could have a reason to refine this piece.

I write to release my hand of all it holds throughout the day: my book or my pen that constantly balances on the edge of having no ink, my heart when it gets tired from dancing around in my chest, or my tears when they fall too far. I write so that my hand can be held and so that the love I hold for existing can be given to another; so I can give thought a body that can be dreamt of, that can be kissed, and that can be cherished even when my hand can no longer write.

My piece Lonely Spartan was inspired while playing Ubisoft’s famous game series, Assassins Creed as well as my creative writing class. I was playing the Odyssey version of the series where you play as a spartan mercenary fighting to survive in the world of Greek mythology. This inspiration combined with the required action of drinking something, word end, and a maximum of one hundred words, I made this piece. However, I have extended this micro-fiction slightly because I beleive it deserves a better and less abrupt ending to truly tell the story.