WriteOn! 2024
Winning Essays 2013 10th-12th
10th Form Group
Ana Doko from Fier
Topic: You just found a way to travel through time. You only have one round trip. Where & when do you go?
Hello! You’ve ever seen me? Of course you have, you just don’t remember seeing me there. You were too busy staring at Napoleon; but you might as well have seen me with the cave men! Look I made a mistake once but I must confess, it was the most amazing mistake I’ve ever made! I am not sure if I can call it a mistake anymore. You see, my father is a scientist, Dr. Rupertstein if you’ve ever heard of him. He makes really weird experiences in his laboratory and I am not really into science so I usually don’t fool around there. One day, I lost Sirius our terrier in our mansion in Birmingham and while I was searching for him I heard a barking noise coming from dad’s lab. So thinking it might be Sirius in there, I decided to take a look. It was actually my first time in his laboratory and suddenly I was almost blinded by all those flashlights coming from really weird machines with tons of buttons. Obviously I had gone in there for a reason so I made up my mind and decided to look for Sirius. It was a really hard job and I felt that the more time passed the more I got lost in there. When it seemed that the lab came to an end I noticed a gigantic machine made of two parts. A big box with lots of buttons, colorful buttons but very few of them had clues of what their function was. The rest of the machine was a giant arch; connected to the box with a lot of wires which actually seemed like snakes. There was a label next to the machinery and in capital letters it wrote: TIME MACHINE. “Wow” I thought; surely dad is not building a time machine. “Well” a tiny voice inside of me was saying. “When did you ever pay any attention to his work? Here are tons of inventions, have you ever heard him talk about them?” I was stunned. I didn’t know what to do. I had to look for Sirius but I was paralyzed by this machine. Was time traveling possible? Who knew? Maybe dad knew. Maybe he would be traveling in time now since I didn’t see him anywhere in his lab. But he could be in the kitchen couldn’t he? Getting a snack of something? And during that time I could… explore… the time machine. But dad sure wasn’t in the kitchen. I checked there for Sirius like five minutes ago. How ironic! I had been staring for more than five minutes at the time machine! Let alone, how much time had I been fooling around the laboratory. Well, I made up my mind. I would travel in time. But how could I do that?? There were hundreds of buttons in the big box of the machine and a small touch screen part which I had no clue of what it could do. Then, I caught something with my eye. It was a pamphlet on the dusty floor. I couldn’t believe it! It was the instructions on how to travel in time. Then I thought if dad created the instructions, he must have successfully tested the time machine! Hooray! The definitely meant that I could travel in time. After reading the instructions carefully, I learned that the touch screen part/device’s function was to localize the place where I would go and the definite time, month, date, year and hour of when I would go. That was such a dilemma! When and where? I started walking to and fro in front of the machine undecided. The worst was that I had only one trip; whether it was the future or past. Such a drama! There were so many things and places I wanted to visit and people to see! The cave men, Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, Scanderbeg, Ismail Qemal, Juri Gagorin, Mendelejev, Dostojewski and lots of other people. But I wanted to see my family too. My grandma that I never met! Oh what could I possibly do? I was so tired and my head was going to burst. But I wanted to see the future too? What was going to happen to me? Oh, why in the world did I have to discover this cursed time machine? I remembered something faintly, a quote from Aristotle: “The ones that ignore (now was it the past or was it the time?) stay children!” But was it really like that? Then something in a glittering and sparkling red colour shone by. Oh no, I thought when I saw it, not another button! Anyhow I carefully stepped through the wires to read its tiny letters on the button. TIME TRAVEL: OPTIONAL CHOICE: FAST FORWARD? I was amazed! Could it really be the solution to my problem? I could travel once, as the book said but if I took the portable touch screen device with me, I could go anywhere and fast forward to all these moments that I didn’t feel like it to watch. Yes; that definitely was my perfect solution! “Thank you dad” I whispered although no one was there to listen. Although the pavement was cleaner than before (no kidding on how much I’ve walked to and fro in front of the machine) I wrote a message with my fingers if anything would go wrong, but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t. I AM TIME TRAVELING. PLEASE NOTIFY MY FATHER ABOUT THIS. HE KNOWS WHAT TO SAY OR DO. ALSO PLEASE BE AS KIND AS TO FIND AND FEED SIRIUS. LOTS OF LOVE… Perfect. This would describe both, the note and my journey. It was amazing. I saw not only famous people but I saw practically everyone from cave men to Jesus Christ, from Julius Caesar to Jules Verne, Ernest Hemingway to Charles Dickens and a lot of people; lots of presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt, Stalin and Hitler. But the most beautiful memory was those I got from my family; seeing all of my relatives and especially my grandma. She was a very caring woman. At the end of my trip, my heart was filled with joy and pride. Strangely, this time I found the exit more easily. I went into the kitchen and stared at the time. It had passed but five minutes! “IMPOSSIBLE!” I exclaimed out loud. “Nothing is impossible my darling! Always remember that!” my dad had put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a gentle shove. “I know dad, I know!” He was surprised and he arched his eyebrows while his emerald eyes met those deep blue of mine. It took nothing but a moment for him to understand. I went to my room afterwards and found Sirius under my bed, that was shocking! I had looked at least three times there and I hadn’t seen him. That was stunning. But the more stunning thing was the talk I had with my father that night after dinner. He advised me not to tell anyone anything, otherwise the government would come for us. When he saw the terrified look on my face he quickly added “not that I am doing anything illegal pumpkin!” I trusted him and for once I felt more close to him that I had ever been to anyone else. That completely changed my life for good. I understood by the time that my dad had done all of this work that I could be proud of him! And I really am proud. My dad is THE BEST!
Danjela Ruci from Burrel
Eralda Meta from Burrel
11th Form Group
Topic: If you had a remote control that controlled your parents, what buttons would it have?
There are times when everything that most teenagers wish for is to have the ability to control their parents. Maybe because these teens want their parents to know how it feels to be under control all the time.
Personally speaking, I never wished that. But yes, I wish I had a remote control for my parents. And if I had the possibility to choose which buttons to put on it, the first button would be the “health” button. Sometimes my parents have health problems and I’m really worried about this.
The second button I’d put on this remote control would be the “<3” button. This button stands for love. I want them to love each other and to love people around them because we all know that there’s nothing more beautiful than to love and be loved.
Another button I’d put on that remote control would be the “hug” button. To be honest there are times when I feel quite sad and all I wish for is a huge. But I have to hide the sadness behind a fake smile, as I know that they (my parents) would ask me a lot of questions that I may not want to answer. By pressing the “hug” button my parents would just give me a huge, the warmest huge that may ever exist.
The last button I’d put on the remote control wouldn’t be the “shut up” button or “leave me alone” button. The last button would be “understand me”. So they would understand how I feel when I don’t get a good mark. They would understand me when I told them “I want to go out with friends.” They would understand my most used sentence “I want to surf the net for fun now”. By pressing this button, I know that they would understand the way I feel, just like I understand it.
Maybe this remote control could help me get closer to them. Anyway, I love my parents and I will always love them because it’s because of them that I’m alive right now. And I know that whatever happens, they will always be the people I most admire.
Topic: You just found a way to travel through time. You only have one round trip. Where & when do you go?
Now, I am not here. I am far away, flying to a magical place called “The Children’s World”. Many of you may think it is a place that doesn’t exist or others may say “You can’t go, you are not a child anymore! It is forbidden!” But those who have a great imagination decide to come with me to listen to my “strange” but beautiful story.
In fact, I am one of those people. I am the one who really missed the time when she was a child. I missed my world of adventure, my games, my superheroes, my real friends who never left me alone and so many things that can be found only in that world. This was my dream for a long time, I was disappointed because I thought it will never become true. It was impossible but finally the time came.
One day as I was watching my pictures, my photos the little dolls that I used to play with me years ago, I started crying. “The adult world is not as I expected it to be, there’s no colour in it, just grey faces. If only I went there again, back in my childhood world” I thought.
Suddenly, a beautiful woman appeared with a gift in her hands. I couldn’t believe my eyes. She was Arina my superhero. Her voice sounded familiar to me.
“I have come to give you this, my gift for you. I feel very bad because I never came when you were a little girl. Now I am here to make your dream true.” Were all she said.
Immediately I took the present and I held her hand ready to go to “the Children’s World”. A world with no lies, no interference, no tears, no crimes. It was the time to let them behind for some hours or maybe for some days. It was the time to feel happy again.
Ana Bici from Elbasan
Topic: What does a blind person see?
A blind person sees everything. Yes! And you know what? Far better than all of us! And you know why? Because they see the truth! The undeniable, non modified truth. We, the ones that have “no eye sight problem”, are the blindest. We see a red apple and we think it’s actually red. Yeah, what would the universe say about it? My own dog sees it gray! My cat thinks it’s white! Laughing out loud, huh? Well, what a pity… thinking that we live in a 100% delusional world…
My blind friend knows everything about me. I can’t hide or lie to her. Because she feels me while I’m smiling, nicely dressed and head held up high, she knows that in fact I am terribly sad and crying from the inside.
“I can feel your aura, your halo… your gaze and excitement creates a magnetic field all around. I can read your heart by hearing your footsteps and slithering through your hands…” she says. “Blind people can do that” she adds while continuing to smile. Oh, yes, it’s true. While others try to understand or catch a thought by just a rapid glare, a blind person puts all sense into it. We think that what we see is true, real and we pretend doing the right thing. We think we know pain, justice and life in general but… a blind human, is… more real. They are the ones who know about suffering, what it feels like, not being able to embrace the blue sky. Only about the blue sky… that’s why they are purer and give love for granted like God would have wanted.
They make us re-think about our own lives, actions and feelings. No matter what, feelings are what count, and we all live to fulfill that bit of happiness. My friend sees with her heart wide open. WIIIIIIDEEE OPEN! Like my kitten’s eyes in the dark trying to reach my hand. She also sees crime and rudeness far more better than I do. People like her experience it everyday. I can be her eyes when she struggles for a glass of water! But she will forever, forever be my light leader. My teacher of devotion, faithfulness, sacrifice and love. And she never asks for anything in return. Only respect, acknowledgment and awareness.
We all live under the same sky. That’s who these people make better individuals out of us. Experience as a time travel mate! I like to see everything from soul as a point of view cause that’s what matters anyway. I bet that’s how the world works! Let’s show appreciation to what life gave us. Let’s share love and happiness and gratitude, support and be thankful! Exchanging our visuals and sights… They see everything… and everything has a bigger, sincere impact on them.
But we are all the same. My friend, thank you, and I love you!
Topic: What does a blind person see?
Ina Shenplaku from Elbasan
Antoneta Gjelaj from Lezhe
Somewhere in the world, in a tiny piece of earth, out of our dimension, but in the same time in our sky, should exist a small cottage where our feelings, our thoughts and what our eyes capture every day, stay. It may seem strange, crazy and impossible but I’m sure that it is around us. It’s just invisible.
Everybody knows perfectly well how to open the door of this cottage because we all have the key. But it raises a simple question! Does everyone know how to use it? Cos’ to use this key, it means to open and unlock the door of the great happiness of our hearts and our smiles. We all know that we smile when we’re happy, when we hear great news we’re up in the sky, when our friends goes away, we’re upset but we’re destroyed when somebody breaks our heart. And all these connected chains have the intrusion of the images and faces we see in our everyday life.
Does the same thing happen to a blind person too?
I’m not sure for that! She can’t see, she can’t watch her favourite movie or me her best friend, just hear… hear! Her word or better sayin’ her vision is surrounded by black. It doesn’t have colour. So what do you see? Tell me, please tell me, so I can finally let out this eccentric curiosity that is burning me down.!
How come? What are you asking to me? A “why”? I want to understand you! That’s the answer! I want to know how you feel the happiness, the honesty, the optimistic and pessimistic side of me? How can you fall in love with someone who you just heard his voice? You can say to me anything like: “my mind helps me!” – but I won’t believe that! So give me a **** answer! “My heartbeat shows me the way… to see!”
And in that moment, I was speechless. I couldn’t say a word. I was turned into a blindfolded girl searching to escape from this terrible darkness that only a blind person can see! But I’m wrong! For the second time I used my logical calculation; when my heart was telling me another thing!
Only poor spirits see the darkness and the blackness cos’ when you are a high spirit filled with emotions and feelings you’ll never accept to see it. And I was again in the same situation, blindfolded… but now with a strong lack around my belly that helped me understand that I was not alone. Blind people are not alone! They’re filled up with thousands of lights like piñatas, that’s why they can’t open their eyes: cos’ our human light is a reaction for them. They’re better than us cos’ they fell more and use their brain to get over and over again to something they don’t understand.
I’m sure for one thing and that it’s only a part of the big puzzle of the light in their eyes. They can see more than me and you cos’ they come from another dimension where they image doesn’t matter but it’s really important what you are in reality. Maybe it’s a huge gap between us and them but their positive side takes over the best part of our world.
They are in silence, in the middle of the woods, hearing the birds singing and the leaves dancing all around the trees with the latest music created by the hand clapping of the sun that have fell down his rays, to protect the new flowers. They are sitting in the middle of somewhere, trying to make us understand the chattering stone called life that changes its form but has the same purpose always and always and always.
They are sitting there, waiting to love and to be loved and getting their “under silence kiss”. They are now and again trying to be our friends in the way to make us notice what they really see. However our attention is not placed always right, that’s how we have created a paradox.
That’s what they see: all these words, all our life, the future and a better “we”. That’s what they see in now a day life: that we don’t care anymore for each other, we’re selfish and arrogant in a world that is waiting to be protected. We destroy and we don’t know what we’re doing to the nature, to the environment and to our bodies.
They see what we can’t see! They see that we’re not ready for a new world, for a new life time! But their optimistic eyes can see that living a life doesn’t mean counting your breath but counting the moments which are breathtaking. They’re the biggest diary in the whole universe, so if we want something that we can’t see, we can just ask them what? and why? and I’m sure that they would have seen it.
Topic: What does a blind person see?
12th Form Group
A blind person is a person like us, but with a change he can’t see. The people, who said this, they have it wrong. It’s true that they can’t see but everybody, including blind people can see with the eyes of their hearts. They can feel the shining sun in the summer, the cold winter and the change of climate in the environment. The thing most important of them is the “listening” process. They can feel a person who walks towards them and also can imagine with the eyes of the mind. A blind person can picture figures, people, things and situations. Their feelings play an important role in their life, everything supports on the feelings. But what does a blind person see?
He sees the beautiful things, the bad things, the sad and the happy in the voice of others. A blind person can understand more things than a person who can see but is blind in the spirit. A blind person can’t see how big the world is, how the flowers are but they can feel this with imagination and with a touch. When we touch a flower we feel the sensitive, when we smell it we feel the aroma. When we close the eyes we picture the colour of the flower with the eyes of the mind. The world of the blind person is so big that we can’t imagine it. We should help these people to enter into our world, to communicate and to work normally. Everybody has this word but not everybody lives in the same world.
Ardita Koxhaj from Kucove
Anela Hoxhallari from Kucove
Topic: What would you do if you knew you were going to lose your memory at the end of every day?
4/03/2013
Dear Diary,
Tomorrow is my 18th birthday. I’m hoping it is going to be a great day for me, with lots of fun and lots of love around me. My parents and friends have organized a “surprise” party for me, which is not so surprising anymore, because I already know about it, but nobody knows I do, so shhh… You’re wondering how I learned about it, aren’t you? Well, I heard my parents talk about it last night, but I didn’t want to tell them I knew cos if I know they’re happy if I’m happy, and I know they want to surprise me today, so I won’t let the cat out of the bag.
Anyway, now I have to sleep, so I wake up fresh tomorrow. Bye, bye!
P.S. Oh, I almost forgot, my father is going to take me to the lake tomorrow in his car. This is so exciting! I can’t wait.
… (13 months later)
Dear Diary,
Tomorrow is my 18th birthday. I’m hoping it is going to be a great day for me, with lots of fun and lots of love around me. My parents and friends have organized a “surprise” party for me, which is not so surprising anymore, as I already know about it, but nobody knows I do, so shhh… You’re wondering how I learned about it, aren’t you?
P.S. Oh, I almost forgot. My father is going to take me to the lake tomorrow in his car. This is so exciting! I can’t wait!
Dear Diary,
Yesterday night, after I wrote about “the day of my birthday”, I decided to go through your pages to see what I had written before and guess what? I had been writing the same thing for the last 5 months! 5 MONTHS!!! Do you get it? And you know what’s worse than that? That I didn’t know anything about it so I decided to leave a note to myself saying that I should buy today’s paper and I did it.
FLASH NEWS: Today is the 15th of April 2014.
I was in a shock so I decided to ask my parents about it and they were furious, but sad at the same time. After I insisted for 12 hours, they decided to tell me the truth. And the truth is: I haven’t been living my life for the past year.
The day of my birthday, my father and I had had an accident. He was fine and he’s still fine thank goodness but I hit my head. And now I’m sick. I forget about everything at the end of each day, well everything that happens during the day.
Right now, I want to cry and scream and shout as hard as I can at the top of my lungs but I can’t. There’s something that blocks me. Maybe it’s the thought that everybody’s life goes on.
What am I going to do next? I don’t know yet for sure. I’m confused and I don’t know who I am anymore. But one thing is for sure: I will leave a note to myself every morning, telling me that I already know about this situation and that I shouldn’t be scared cos everything’s going to be fine. I’m going to tell myself that my father’s gray hair shouldn’t scare me or make me cry cos years are passing by and he’s growing older and that’s something normal for a man at this age. I’m going to remind myself that I won’t be 18 anymore, that years will go by for me, as they do for everybody else, even though I won’t be able to remember them. And that the wrinkles are a part of me now and that feeling tired is going to be normal and that people I know are going to die and other people will be born, that my sister is going to get married and have children of her own…
And I will fill the hours with pictures and names and stories who will remind me that life goes on. And I’m going to remind myself to write and read everything that I write on your pages.
It’s going to be hard, I know. Harder than everything else I’ve done. But hey, my family lived with me for more than a year and even though it was hard for them, they made it. I can make it too! I know I can. But I will need your help. Oh, and tomorrow, remind me to thank my parents for everything. Good night!
See you on the 16th of April.
Topic: What would you do if you knew you were going to lose your memory at the end of every day?
Arlinda Gogo from Kucove
Death, a word with five letters, all different but related to one meaning, fear, destruction and present.
I have never seen Death but I know that Death is a woman. A woman who everyone is afraid of and somehow looking for a defense. She is a women with a full time job available for everyone and easy to get or find. I know that she is a women who kisses everyone once in their life.
She has different faces, all of them beautiful like heaven, with every color in her magic eyes. It’s just like the hypnosis, when you see her, you are going to kiss her and you are going to stop existing for everyone else except her. You can’t see through her, she’s not invisible, but sure you cannot touch her.
She does have a name, a name that she is not concerned of having, only we know that her name is “Death”. 4 words defense, easy, available and through are principal in describing her and imagining her.
Did you know that that “life” and “death” are two girls, that used to be best friends? Suddenly they started to argue about everything and now they are enemies. Actually we are in love with both of them, the problem is that we don’t know that death is kind of loves, being someone a deathly love.
I am not afraid of her. I saw her kiss and that’s all but I am afraid about her kissing my family. If she does that I am going to kiss her too, not because I’m jealous but because I am afraid of living my life alone.
Topic: What would you do if you knew you were going to lose your memory at the end of every day?
The sun is shining just below my bed, forcing me to open my eyes and get up from bed. It’s just a normal day, but it seems so strange, like it doesn’t belong to me. Then the alarm clock rings loudly making me take a look at the commode, seeing a letter inside an envelope with a small hand written note “Dad”. The curiosity pushed me to take the letter and read the letter that my dad had left me.
My dearest daughter,
Memories are pieces of a puzzle that make every single day of our lives special. These are the memories which make us the human beings that we are today. Memories are the ones that give our life a meaning. But don’t you worry my precious girl. Memories are also stories that write the pages of our personal history. And your history is colorful. It has faces, places, objects and lots and lots of pictures. Do you see the photograph album beside you? These are the pictures we took yesterday. There is also an album for everyday that we have lived together because taking pictures, catching moments and living life to the fullest, like it is the last day of our lives, made you the person that you are today. My daughter. Waiting for you in the kitchen to have breakfast.
Your dad.
I was stunned. I saw a picture of me and my dad and I had no idea when it was taken. I saw the whole album, but I couldn’t remember every single thing of these moments. However, I could only imagine how it would have been like spending time with my dad and friends. I also saw many other pictures hanging on the wall which I thought should have been best memories from the past. And somewhere on the table, I saw the camera. It was my pen for writing my story. It was my memory archive, the only connection that I had from the yesterday world.
It’s strange how the human’s brain functions. It doesn’t remember stories, activities or events but it remembers perfectly my likes and dislikes or what I have learned and am capable of doing.
Taking pictures is the only thing that more than a hobby is a vital detail in order to continue this new day. So I see more photos, each one of them has a small note and I could distinguish my handwriting leaving small prints to fill the holes that my puzzle had. At the end of the photograph album, there was a small note:
“What are you waiting for? Grab your camera and say good morning to your dad. And remember: live life to the fullest”.
And that was exactly what I intended to do. Life is too short to spend it inside a room with four walls. And all I could think of was going downstairs and giving my dad a kiss like I hadn’t kissed him for ages and be grateful for every single moment that I was blessed to live today.