WriteOn! 2024
11th Grade Winning Essays 2015
NATIONAL
1st Place - Blendi Osmani, Peshkopi
Topic: You snap your fingers once and your best friend appears beside you. You snap your fingers again and you are both transported to your favorite place. What happens when you snap your fingers again?
Here I am. Laying on my bed. It’s almost twelve o’clock and I’m just staying in my room, crying about last night, convincing myself that my actions were right and that I am more than a big sock full of nothing.
Many times, I tried to pick up the phone and call my friend, Tommy to apologize. All those times, I stopped myself. Praying to God that Tommy will be the one who’d take the first step. I was hoping for a miracle to happen, when suddenly I hear a strange voice saying, “Snap your fingers.” Am I going insane?? I need to see a doctor. Those were the thoughts that were wondering through my head. During my insanity, I decided to snap my fingers and then immediately my friend shows up out of nowhere. I’m shocked. I was just staring at him. I decide to take the first step and apologize to him. He was already smiling. It’s like he was reading my mind. We both smile to each other without saying a word. The silence was too loud so I decide to talk. What’s that letter?
He had no idea. We decided to open it together. “Snap again and you and your friend will go to your favorite place.” We look at each other and shake our heads simultaneously. I snap again and some magical force took us to the most amazing place ever. Again, I was shocked. The trees were so high, it seemed as if they were trying to grab the sun. The place underneath would be dark, but somehow the sunlight had managed to go as if it wanted us to see everything. Amazed by the extraordinary view, we had missed the most important thing.
I was holding a letter I had no idea where it came from. I tear the envelope apart and quickly read the letter. FRIENDSHIP TEST. Those words scared me, but the next words terrified me.
“Within ten minutes you have to write on the letter, the name of the person that survives. It’s going to be you or your friend. Once you write the name, snap your fingers.”
Impossible!! I could not be the cause of Tommy’s death. I look straight up, but my eyes are looking at nothing. 8 minutes I keep thinking. I’m not able to kill anybody so I start writing my name, scared by the tiger that was staring at both of us. I write my name and I snap my fingers. Tom disappears. The tiger starts running towards me. I close my eyes and wait for the tiger to swallow me.
I opened my eyes. I’m on my bed, crying. I knew that Tom was one of the most important persons of my life. I realized that until then, I was just dreaming. I had to apologize. I pick up the phone, and just as I’m dialing his number, it rang. It was Tom apologizing and telling me that he had that dream that was the same as mine, and he sacrificed himself for me.
They say there is no greater power then love, but I say that friendship is even greater than that. Personally I think that friendship is the most powerful force in the universe.
2nd Place - Alba Verushi, Gramsh
Topic: You snap your fingers once and your best friend appears beside you. You snap your fingers again and you are both transported to your favorite place. What happens when you snap your fingers again?
So, I had just finished my homework and I was going to watch my favorite cartoons, Dora the Explorator. It was the favorite moment of the day for me when little Dora appeared on the TV and ruled us to do senseless things such as clapping hands, snapping fingers, answering crazy questions and things like this. This days theme of the cartoons was about Machu Pichu, my favorite place in the world. Like always, Dora said to snap your fingers if you liked Machu Pichu. I snapped my fingers hard when suddenly my best friend appeared standing on the couch beside me. Wow, I thought I was going crazy and this was the effect of my brain for watching Dora everyday. I closed my eyes, hoping that when I open them again my friend won’t be there and I will realize that I’m totally out of my mind. But…my friend was still there, doing all the things that Dora continued to say from the TV. Yes, we are both crazy for Dora, and don’t feel ashamed for that. Nevermind. I was too busy watching Dora so I didn’t continue thinking about why my friend was there and how did she come there. Obviously, Dora was more important than this abnormal thing that happened. We continued watching Dora. ‘Snap your fingers again if you want to go to Machu Pichu.’ – Dora said, and voila, me and my friend were in Machu Pichu, dressed with strange clothes. Something wrong is going on, I thought this doesn’t happen everyday. For one moment, you are in your house standing in your lovely couch watching Dora the Exlporator, you snap your fingers and your friend appears there, you snap your fingers again and you are in Machu Pichu, your favorite place in the world. This doesn’t happen every day, does it? I was thinking what will happen if I snap my fingers again. The curiosity of knowing what happens next was tempting, but will save that for later. First, I have to explore Machu Pichu. Machu Pichu wasn’t like I had imagined it. It was a small village with a small house (when I say small, I mean it) inside of which lived liliputes. We seemed like giants in front of them. Even that they had small bodies their heart was large and generous. They invited us at their house to try traditional food. We accepted with pleasure. Now that I think it, we shouldn’t have accepted their offer. So their traditional food was a plate full of ants with burning spices. My mouth still burns from all that spice. In revenge, me and my friend took all the liliputes and put them inside of a jar. This is going to be our house decorations, we will put the jar on top of the TV so every time we watch Dora, we will remember what the Machu Pichu inhabitants did to us. Once that we put the liliputes into the jar, I remembered that I had to discover what happens if I snap my fingers for a third time.
So, without hesitation, I snapped my fingers again. I shouldn’t do that. The next moment, I find myself inside the TV. Dora was standing next to me. I was transformed into Dora’s monkey. Yeah, that was disappointing… I always thought I looked like a monkey, but being a monkey is totally a different thing. Now I have to spend the rest of my life being a monkey. This is not a good thing, believe me. So don’t ever snap your fingers three times, don’t do what a stranger says to you, especially if that stranger is Dora the Explorator.
3rd Place - Romela Qytyky, Prrenjas
Prompt: What would the world be like if the sun was always shining and there was no night?
I’m the sun. I’m always there shining and smiling to the world. I always give you positive thoughts. I have never given up and I have always been shining and giving my love to the people.
One day I gave up and the sky cried for me. Everything got dark. There was dark everywhere. The world was a disaster. Everyone was sad and they had lot of work. If I hadn’t given up these sadness wouldn’t happen. Then I realized and I said: “Wait a minute, what am I doing? Why did I leave my friends?” Friends don’t leave each other. I sent my friend “cloud” to see my friends and he said, “Sun, go there, they need you. They look terrible.” Then I thought that the dark was giving them the loneliness. They need my shine, they need my love and my care. I realized that I should never give up. Flowers miss me. They need me to be happy and healthy. People would have less work and more creativity. But if I would be always there shining and there was no night, people wouldn’t have time to sleep or to do “Girls night” (pillow fights), parties, or they wouldn’t see fireworks. They would be always there working and having no time for sleep and dreams. I want to be with them, but I can’t be selfish. I should think about their dreams and their relax time. I can’t stop New Years Eve and the countdown or fireworks because if I shine all the time, people wouldn’t have these wonderful things.
But be sure that I’ll be there shining in the morning and giving you my last kiss in the evening. “Be happy as me and don’t think negative as they.”