Seventh Grade First Place in Creative Writing

“Goodbye!”, I wave, to yet another one of my close companions leaving. Day after day, shuttle after shuttle, I’ve grown tired of being left behind on this abhorrent planet. As I turn my head to the dead marigolds that had once been the most beautiful sight you could ever see, I start to remember the time when I could see the sky in its natural hue. Blue. I start to sob. I try but can’t hold the tears back. As I eat my daily ration of dehydrated god knows what, I feel like it was just yesterday, I was playing in the field with my friends, goofing around. Dashing through the park, fresh air surrounding us, the sound of our laughter resounding into the clear, blue sky. In all of these activities that seemed harmless, I feel a tinge of regret. My family had always told me it was the little things that mattered. It was only now that I comprehend the true meaning of that statement. When I was a little child, miniscule, innocent, guileless, I remember playing with toys made of plastic. I was having fun and I never thought I was harming anyone. I now realize that if everyone my age at the time had refrained from playing with toys manufactured in pollution causing factories, our planet may have still been the beautiful blue planet with pure air to breath, clean water to drink and fresh food to eat. Nowadays, we are forced to drink contaminated water that our water purifiers can’t handle. Tens of millions of deaths each year are caused by waterborne diseases. In the rare event I am able to see anything apart from the color black, I am not allowed to go outside without a gas mask. Tens of thousands of people have embarked on a journey to the planet Mars, which is now partly colonized. Our government is failing to serve justice, as only the people who could immediately pay hundreds of thousands of dollars could leave. Most animals are extinct. The economy is in a dreadful state, unemployment has skyrocketed, and hospitals are overwhelmed by epidemics of diseases we thought we had eliminated. In fact, the bubonic plague has re-emerged as rat populations begin to thrive in abandoned homes. I am in a living hell.