The new year of 2017 has bought with it: many resolutions, a ton of exams for GCSE students to prepare for and a huge smack in the face by reality. Views of a positive and stress free 2017 may or may not have already been crushed by now, but amidst all the chaos can young people find the calm before the storm and does that calm involve conforming with reality at all?

So what if the whole idea of “calm” wasn’t being completely still and letting your mind rest – what if it was letting your mind erupt into an abundance of vivid colours and escaping into a whole new world inside of your head?

This is what the London Borough of Redbridge has been doing yearly and is doing for yet another year with their Short Story Competition. Children in secondary schools from Redbridge are allowed to enter this short story competition and let their imagination run free – a great escape from the craziness of day to day life. There is an imaginative twist on the competition where every competitor must include the following sentence:

“Touch the wooden gate in the wall you never saw before, say “Please” before you open the latch, go through, walk down the path.”

Mysterious? One can believe so.

You must be thinking: isn’t this extra stress to add to the plethora of stress that has created a burden on young children and people? Well, you’ve most definitely assumed wrong. According to a doctor from the University of Texas, writing is a great way to relieve and get rid of symptoms that trigger stress in young people.

Furthermore, we have everything set out for us in life and we don’t even realise it! Our school timetable, what you study in Maths and even going as far as TV shows. None of these day to day happenings involve getting you to think. We have almost become robots – each of us following a set routine. Everything has limitations, except writing! It is absolutely fantastic that children have the ability to enter competitions where the pen is placed in their hand; where they are open to enter another realm of creativity!

At the end of the day, going home and flicking through a multitudinous amount of news and posts on social media can be a tedious task when instead teenagers could pull out a notebook and pour out the contents of their brain onto a sheet of paper. At such a point in time where many changes are taking place in our society – changes that mean an entire future of uncertainty and a great impact on young people – we mustn’t underestimate the power of the young. What comes out of a young person may be something pivotal; crucial; a contribution to society. So by giving these kids a chance to write and express things they may not be able to express in a classroom in front of thirty or so other kids, we may see a great rise in public figures in the near future with eye-opening, creative and thought-provoking ideas.

Be creative – get writing!

Marissa Lay