My Power of the Pen Stories

STATE COMPETITION RESULTS!

Helloooo everybody.!!

As you may know, the state competition took place May 21 and 22 at the College of Wooster (which was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!)

As you may also know, I attended that competition with my team. While there, I got to sleep in a dorm with my friend, shop at the Wooster gift shop AND the Power of the Pen stuff, bowl, tour the campus, eat at a buffet three times, go to the dance, get books signed by Michael Grant and listened to his speech (which was awesome,) and of course, WRITE!

Yeah, so as you can tell, it was pretty fun. I miss it a lot. While there though, I managed to meet Sasha0304 at the dance. Her team and her herself were so nice and I enjoyed getting the chance to speak with them!

I also SAW jajayray !! (Don't worry, we made eye contact too and it was quite obvious we knew it was each other.) we didn't have the chance to talk because we saw each other during the awards ceremony.

And finally, I heard CadieKleftis 's team..!! xD I didn't see her but her team won fourth(?) for the sweepstakes trophy and they cheered really loud, so thank you for rupturing my eardrums. :p

I stayed in the Holden Hall in room 249 (it was on the second floor.) The elevator was REALLY CREEPY. There was like, some type of paint on the wall that dried while it was dripping so it totally looked like blood. It creaked and there was a gate as the entrance..

The prompts were: (I'm just repeating these by memory.)

ROUND 1: The Pest. Write about your attempt to get rid of one.

ROUND 2: Describe something or someone that is one-of-a-kind.

ROUND 3: Write about a POINT OF NO RETURN where you can't undo what has already been done.

POWER ROUND: Surprise ending. Start your story with one.

Personally, the prompts were okay. I had good ideas for each I think, so it was okay. I felt pretty confident.

So, after all the writing was over, we had about 2 hours to do whatever. I felt really nervous because in 2 hours, they would announce the 54 kids that would move on to the Power Round.

So after Michael Grant spoke, my stomach was churning. They played this epic music and then they started announcing names. (At that point in time, I had not realized that the names were in alphabetical order.) They announced the names in three groups. After each group, they paused for a bit to let everyone go.

My name wasn't called for the first group or the second group. I was getting so anxious. Then finally the third group came. They announced names. Mine wasn't there.

Then they said it!! They said my name towards the bottom of their list. I was so happy.

None of my other teammates made it into the Power Round, so I gave them my Gone book to get signed.

Okay, let's skip all this extra stuff. It's time for awards.

All the Power Round participants sat up in this "special" area next to the stag for some reason. It was really awkward. I felt like everyone was staring at me. I sat next to this nice eighth grade girl named Cecilia. If you're out there Cecilia, thanks for being so supportive and cracking a few jokes. It really helped to calm my nerves.

The first part of the ceremony was a bunch of boring stuff that I had no idea what it meant. I was getting jealous though because all these kids were getting $6,000 scholarships to Wooster that were RENEWABLE EVERY YEAR. I wish that were me. xP

Finally, the placements. It was the top 15 kids in each grade got plaques.

And I won seventh! 7th place out of the whole state of Ohio for seventh graders!! I was really proud of myself, honestly.

The only thing that upset me a little were my scores. I got ALL ONES.

Except for the first round.

I got a FREAKING 4 and 86 QUALITY POINTS!! Like, are you serious? I was so close... SO CLOSE. And it wasn't even my fault! The only negative thing the judge wrote was "how can you write from first person POV if the character is dead?!11?!1!" i'm like.. SERIOUSLY. I can write from whatever POV I want... Some judges are huge idiots.

Anyways, the whole experience was amazing. IF ANYONE IS WONDERING IF THEY SHOULD JOIN POWER OF THE PEN, DO IT!! It's hard work. Sometimes you don't want to. Sometimes you just want to give up because you're a "horrible writer." But it's fun. YOU GROW. A lot. You learn to be cooperative and you learn teamwork and you learn how awesome it is to be an author. A writer. A creator. Your words inspire, your words can change the world. Power of the Pen is just the beginning of your long journey into writing books. So don't hesitate to join. It was the best decision of my life, and I know it will be again next year.

Thank you Power of the Pen. Thank you.

With lots of love,

Olivia.