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Throwing Raw Eggs Jose Farfan
2007 California State University, Fresno Young Writers' Conference, Honorable Mention
Not too long ago my family participated in an annual event entitled “las corridas.” This event was composed of early days, hard work, much fatigue, and for the kids, fun! While the parents worked all day, the children remained behind to do as we pleased amongst ourselves and the trees. Memories of the hard field work of ever year allow me to know appreciate what I have now as well as cherish the memories of my fun in the trees. It was our second year of going to Oregon, and I was only seven years young. read more> |
The Grocery Cart Tanya Sarmina
2007 California State University, Fresno Young Writers' Conference, English Department Chair’s Award
It was at the tender age of five that I inevitably took my first step towards conformity – it was on this sunny day in Santa Paula that I became a shopper in the vast world we call the grocery store. I don’t remember this grocery store being too big or having a wide variety of groceries; the only thing I do remember was the Cheetos and Mexican bread I would stow in my miniature (what seemed like normal-sized at the time) red and yellow grocery cart. read more> |
One Drip to Seven Drops
Tanya Sarmina
2007 California State University, Fresno Young Writers' Conference, Valley Writers Network Award
There were half eaten saltines, and a glass of wine on the table as the clock struck one. The window was partially open and the white-lace curtains embracing the window were dancing; they mocked him, they smiled, they laughed as he watched them. He was kissed by wind's breath, as drops of water escaped; one by one, they were liberated from the confinement of a water-stained fountain.The ticking of the clock, the trickling of the drops never ceased in cerulean afternoons.read more> |
What My Vote Will Mean to Me Jennifer Spangler
2006 Fleet Reserve Association Essay Contest, 1st Place 9th Grade Branch Winner; 2nd Place 9th Grade Regional Winner
The right to vote is not all-inclusive. Many countries are run by dictators and a line of succession, but the American government freely gives a right to make one’s opinion known. The power to vote is the power to effect change. There are many reasons that the right to vote is important to me. One reason is that I am a woman and the right to vote once was exclusively for men. After a long struggle led by ladies such as Elizabeth Cady Stranton and Sojourner Truth, women finally earned the right to vote. read more> |
What My Vote Will Mean to Me
Tracy Harriger
2006 Fleet Reserve Association Essay Contest, 1st Place 10th Grade Branch Winner; 2nd Place 10th Grade Regional Winner
I, as a youth in the 21 st century, have the privilege of living in a society where we have many freedoms. One of those freedoms is to have the right to vote for what I believe is right. I may vote for the laws that I agree with and vote against those that I dislike. I will have the right to choose my own senators, representatives, vice president, and president. Why does all of this matter? read more> |
Be-Back McKenna Cowart
2006 Fresno City Library William Saroyan Award
The night a huge banging sound came from our bathroom sky light was the night it all started. I had gotten up around eleven or twelve realizing I had forgotten to put in my retainer when a huge “THUMP” came ringing down from the bathroom ceiling. I screamed and my sister came running out of her room with an angry, “It better be worth waking up for this time,” look on her face (I’ve had the habit of over reacting to small, usually imagined, noises coming from the roof in the middle of the night ever since I can remember). read more> |
When the Sun Smiled
Christina Hackett
2006 California State University, Fresno Young Writers' Conference, William Saroyan Award
In Springville—a town where the people are protected and caressed among Nature’s great walls, the Sierra Nevadas—lies a world that I share with my friends, the famous Transcendentalists of the nineteenth century: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau. Every evening throughout autumn, I leave the cold, trifling world behind—a life where I am socially inept because of my lack of commonalities with the public world—to my world—where I am among many who are like me. read more> |
Family of Acrobats
Tanya Sarmina
2006 California State University, Fresno Young Writers' Conference, Students of English Studies Award
I don’t remember what Thanksgiving felt like as a child. I don’t remember eating turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes - there’s no memory of it. I don’t even know if we had a Thanksgiving feast. Sure, I remember those hand-print turkeys you make in kindergarten, maybe even those “What I’m Thankful For…” projects, but other than that my mind shoots a blank. Ten years later, Thanksgiving only proves to be strangers (my mother calls them “family”) gathered around the television set, eating cold turkey and “all the fixin’s.” It’s not something you would see out of a Norman Rockwell painting – but then again, it never has been. read more> |
Pick Your Poison
Stephanie Brumfield
2006 California State University, Fresno Young Writers' Conference, Honorable Mention
Grandma didn’t bake cookies or tuck me in with iodine quilts. She rolled her own cigarettes, took her coffee black, and cursed like a sailor. She was married three times, had one annulment, and got more than a few fist fights in her time (her stories were notorious). Sunday morning she never missed “Meet the Press” and at 6:30 p.m., ET she was tuned into ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings rain or shine. read more> |
The Man in the Black El Camino
Christina Hackett
2006 California State University, Fresno Young Writers' Conference, Honorable Mention
As the famous nineteenth century philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, pointed out to America, “All mankind loves a lover.” Exchanging a glance or portraying a deep emotion shortens the distance between you and the stranger. Now, the relations between you and the stranger is one of understanding, with the warmest interest in the development of friendship. To the human heart and mind, a smile says a thousand words. For me, one stranger I have found great love in, is my neighbor who lives somewhere down the country road from me.read more> |
The Last
Lauren Rabaino
2006 California State University, Fresno Young Writers' Conference, Honorable Mention
It was four years, six months, three weeks, two days ago and counting: June 12, 2001. I’ll never forget it—the words I said, the feelings I felt, the actions I made. I have never regretted anything so much. I was in sixth grade at a year-round schools, so we didn’t get the summers off. I liked it that way, just because it was the only thing I ever knew. Three months of school, one month vacation, three months of school, one month of vacation. I was obsessed with consistency and completely averse to change (and still am today). That’s why I was so angry that morning. read more> |
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Updated on:
May 6, 2008
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