WRITING CONTEST WINNERS
Congratulations to the winners of the HelpWithYourEssay.com Writing Contest! Those who wish to compete in future contests should take heed - check out the pieces these writers have composed, and notice how all the pieces demonstrate clarity, coherence and appeal to the readers.
MARC PERAINO - FIRST PRIZE WINNER
Marc is 21 years old and lives in Mount Vernon, Washington, USA. He is currently in between schools, but spent his first year of college at Bishop's University in Quebec,
Canada, where he majored in modern languages. Marc works mainly as a tutor. He has tutored all ages of students in subjects such as math, English, and ESL (English as a Second
Language). His hobbies include playing the piano, studying foreign languages, cooking, skiing, surfing, reading, and most importantly, writing. He found a love for writing
during his senior year in high school and since then has spent much of my time writing short stories and poems.
MARC'S WINNING STORY: THE SOWINGS OF STEWART REAPER
It was late morning as he slowly opened his dead-beat eyes. He felt like a beaten-up doll lying in his bed. He pushed himself up and sat there, looking out at the sun as it seemed to bleach his face. Inside felt like dry bread or bland soup, terrible. Life had no meaning; there was nothing to look forward to and no joy to be felt. His name was Stewart, and this unfortunate, wretched existence fortunately wasn't his fault, at least not entirely. He had tried the honest route to help himself, but it was hell, to be honest, and he was tired. All that was certain was that his grand idea of puffing away his troubles did him no good, because doing so only compounded his problems.
Stewart looked over at his nightstand to see his five favorite remedies to help ease his troubles, which included pain, sorrow, loneliness, anguish, and despair. Each one brought its own pleasurable result, but each one also had a horrible price, like an irksome bounced check or an overdrawn bank account. As he looked at his remedies, he remembered a dream he had during the night. It was a strange dream, and thankfully through the haze and smoke, he remembered it. In it, Stewart was crestfallen but hopeful. He was standing in a plowed field, sowing seeds under a dark blue sky. The seeds yielded dangerous and hideous fruit though. Stewart was appalled at what he created and ran from the field. He continued running until he suddenly reached an edge, like a cliff, but this was the edge at the end of the world and before him was spread the galaxy, shining brilliantly like a beacon in the darkness. As he gazed in wide-eyed wonder at the heavenly expanse, a star passed before him. It shined with a warm strength and with it was a multitude of beautiful planets orbiting it. But then another star appeared and this one was different. It was white, small, and cold. Surrounding it was a great blanket of cosmic debris, the remnants of its warmth and light and the dust of planets once home to the now lonely rock. Although the sight was strangely beautiful, one could only imagine what kind of catastrophe could turn so much into so little and that's when he awoke. Although it was strange, Stewart understood the dream. He could see himself burning away and taking with him everyone he loved in an all-consuming act of self-destruction, just like the cold star, what with how he coped with his problems. As he sat there staring down at his remedies, he could hear the echo of voices saying that old phrase, "You sow what you reap". It was true, and often Stewart drenched his hands in tears over what he reaped. Tears began trickling down again as he thought about it all. But this time, he stopped crying. He got up, got dressed, and decided to take a step out the door. The sun was shining upon him with comfort and strength, drawing him into the protection of its orbit. Stewart bravely stepped forward towards the universe he had dreamed of. And as he stood at the edge of the world looking into the galaxy, a comet swept through with a shimmering tail and the weeping Reaper was gone...
THOMAS MARANGES - SECOND PRIZE WINNER
Tommy Maranges, a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in South Florida, is an avid distance runner and triathlete who recently completed the 2008 Miami Marathon; he also
enjoys performing stand-up comedy in his leisure time, which his essay "Why I'm Awesome" chronicles while addressing the difficulties of writing unreservedly about oneself.
He'll be attending Notre Dame in the fall, where he plans to study Theology/Philosophy with concentrations in Ethics, Logic, and Mariology.
TOMMY'S WINNING ESSAY: WHY I'M AWESOME
I'm awful at writing these "Tell us whatever you want" essays. I worry about not giving you enough information ("So, um, I'm alright at school, I guess") but I'm even more worried about coming off as pompous or arrogant ("I'm the smartest person you'’ll ever meet, ever"), or, worst of the three, so desperate I'm inventing stuff ("So, after the third time I stopped impending nuclear war, I had enough time to discuss the Unified Theory of Everything with Steven Hawking and set the marathon world record before heading home for my thirteenth birthday celebration"). So, what makes me unique? For starters, my apparent love of "stream of consciousness" writing.
I hope that made you laugh. Since grade school, no sound has rung truer to my ears than the sound of laughter, which often gets me in trouble. I attended middle school in my
kitchen; when I reached high school, my audience went from my mom and sisters to two thousand classmates. I couldn't wait. Unfortunately, I found out very, very quickly I'd
have an easier time getting Richard Dawkins to teach theology than getting my English teacher - a German octogenarian - to laugh. She plowed through four O'Henry stories
without smiling. Legend has it, her hybrid car runs on electricity and frowns. Tough crowd. My classmates, too, found my humor decidedly unhumorous. It seems that having the
world's easiest audience four years running actually hurts one's sense of comedic timing and judgment, a memorandum I had somehow missed. Besides, my mother didn't tolerate
the bawdy humor that I soon discovered made classmates howl and German octogenarians blush. I quickly learned that not everything that occurred to me was truly funny. I
learned the value of pausing to ask myself, "Will anyone actually find this amusing?" My diligent work paid off, though; before long, I had my classmates rollicking.
Eventually, informal wit couldn't satisfy me, and I decided to try stand-up. I did a few modest run-throughs for a few friends and received mixed reviews: occasionally I got
laughs; usually I bombed. So I didn't dare try out for the annual cross country camp talent show until my co-captain prodded me into doing my material for the judges, who
chuckled at best. When they asked me to perform in the show, I had no idea that when I stepped on stage that evening to perform for 394 more people than had ever seen me on
stage before, I would rock the house so soundly that I would win that talent show. Stand-up hooked me.
That was over a year ago and since then, I've done open-mike nights, parties, and competitions whenever I get the chance. I'm in an improvisational troupe at my school, and I love to just sit around a table with my friends and tell jokes. I'm set apart from my peers, who love to laugh, because I love to make them laugh. Be it on stage, at a party, or in the most intimate, personal conversations, nothing brings me more joy than the crack of a smile, the escape of a chuckle, and a shared moment of delight.