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by Brenna Baldwin, 04/08/2020, Traverse, MI

Middle School 6-8 Category


School is canceled for the rest of the year now. Eighth grade is over now. Middle school is over. It was cut so short, but it was the best year so far, at least I can look back at all of the happy memories. Bittersweet. Bittersweet was this ending. Bittersweet is, in my opinion, the best type of ending. Yes, I feel the pain of nothing ever being the same, but I am so grateful to have even experienced the joys, ups and downs, and pure happiness of this year. When I look back I smile. Yes. Yes, we did have a sharp ending, but, we had a soft, sweet beginning. In the end, it is how it is. We cannot change how things are meant to happen. However, we can change our perception. I choose to perceive this as rather than another ending, but as a new challenge, beginning. I now have such a greater love for everyone. The little things are gone. Now, they are highly appreciated. The small bursts of laughter, the sparkle of joy seen in your friends’ eyes when you see them in the dimly lit halls at 7:22 am on the dot, the feeling of care and joy when someone new smiles at you unexpectedly. It goes on and on.
The world has been so loud. So unrecognizably loud. We have failed to recognize how loud everything is until we finally fall silent, This is what was forced upon us. Separation. Separation forces silence. We are alone, now lost in thoughts. We must come together, separately.
The world outside is banging and beginning us to come out and play. Play to create noise. Some have cracked and fallen into the playing field. The field numbs the pain temporarily but adds more to others. It weakens the work of the silent, who have kept separation, who have worked so hard to face themselves in this time of despair. They have faced the hardest thing ever, themselves. The players in the playing field simply cannot face themselves, or the silence. The factor is too large for them. When the rules of lonesome are broken by many, as what is currently happening, the price of all is expanded. Lonesomeness, silence, and separation are extended to further dates until finally the rule breakers play the game fairly. That is how the virus will end.