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.