Home
Young Writers Project

Search form

  • Login
  • DONATE
  • CREATE
    • RECENT POSTS
    • THE DAILY READ
  • COMMUNITY
    • TINY WRITES
    • BOOK CLUB
    • YWP PODCAST: Line Break
  • CHALLENGES
    • SUMMER OF STORIES: Challenges
    • SUMMER OF STORIES: Contest
    • JOURNALISM CHALLENGES
      • Journalism Project Info
    • THE GREAT POETS CHALLENGE
    • CHALLENGES BANK
    • YWP RESOURCES
  • PUBLICATIONS
    • ANTHOLOGY 12
      • Celebrate Anthology 12 Podcast!
    • THE VOICE
    • SPECIAL ISSUES: The ELM 2021-22
      • The ELM 2020-21
      • The ELM 2019-20
    • MEDIA PARTNERS
    • YWP NEWSLETTER
    • ANNUAL REPORT
  • ABOUT
    • ABOUT YWP
    • "YWP is ..." Who we are!
    • PERMISSION FORM
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS OF USE
    • CONTACT US
  • Donate
  • LOG IN/JOIN
Previous Post
Next Post
Jan 10
nonfiction
Rovva

Beaming writer

In sixth grade, our class had a show-and-tell every week,
and every week, a small handful of students were selected to participate in the next one.
As I was selected, anxiety kicked in.
I wasn't really proud of anything.
I didn't have anything extraordinary,
like an heirloom from my ancestors that was passed down to me
or an art piece that I made out of clay and acrylic paint.
Maybe they'd make an exception to the "no pets" rule for my cat,
but then I saw my name in the paper.
It was a poem I had submitted to Young Writers Project
and I didn't expect anything to come of it,
but something did. I was out there in dark ink, my thoughts immortalized.
I was eleven years old then, fragile, and I held up the flimsy paper proudly
for the whole class to see what I had created. My teacher beamed.
She had read my writing before, stories that faded with time, but this was stained.
My mother perfectly cut a square in the paper, careful not to clip the outer letters,
leaving space for the eye to pause before each line,
and she placed the clipping in a silver frame on the living room coffee table.
It was the first time I felt real pride in my writing.
I was eleven then and I am nineteen now. For eight years, I've grown.
Though my hair is a different color, different style, and my legs are longer,
I beam with pride at times, though words aren't perfect.
I am still my biggest critic, adding and deleting entire pages,
revising, rewriting, redrawing, redoing everything over and over.
But I am now majoring in English literature, looking to study creative writing,
and hoping to be a part of the influence words have on young people like myself.
This community has urged and inspired me to explore what that means to me.
For that, I remain loyal. I continue to scroll through, even when I don't feel young anymore.
In the younger writers, the ones who beam with pride, I see me,
and I beam too.
  • Rovva's blog
  • Sprout
  • Log in or register to post comments
  • Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted: 01.10.22
About the Author: Rovva
Dominik
MSG / CONTACT
RECENT LOVES
  • Someone
  • Walking on Trodden Snow
  • Anthology 10 Book Launch!
  • Loss
  • Caravan of stars
RECENT COMMENTS
  • Thank you and I agree
  • My old barn in my backyard
  • Thank you very much! I put a
  • I have no doubt about it. It
  • This is my first attempt at a

Other Posts

  • Love And Embalming
    They carried you away in a black hearse.Our black eyes,beaten and bruised by love, Read more
    in poem 0 Comments
  • Grow Up and Listen
    You don't wanna talk to me or listen to me or hear what it is I want to tell you so badly and that's Read more
    in rant 0 Comments
  • The Throbbing Fires of Longing
    It comes and goes in waves,the throbbing in my throat,in my chest, Read more
    in poem 0 Comments

Discussion

Comments

  1. S.Reid
    Jan 10, 2022

    Rovva, we're all beaming at YWP! There is no greater gift than this – to know that YWP made such an impact on your life. Thank you for coming back to tell us. It means the world to us to hear your story.

    YWP Executive Director
    • Log in or register to post comments
  • ABOUT
  • DONATE
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
  • JOIN/LOGIN
YWP is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists, ages 13-18. We're based in Burlington, VT, and we welcome young creators from anywhere!
Special thanks to The Kemmerer Family Foundation whose generous support made this new, improved website possible.
Website development and design by Refaktor Inc., Summit Creative Works, and YWP's Vivien Sorce, Lauren McCabe, Katherine Moran, and Susan Reid.

Young Writers Project | 47 Maple St., Suite 216 | Burlington, VT 05401
501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 2006
Contact: Susan Reid, Executive Director: [email protected]; (802) 324-9538