By Kailey Withers
Staff Writer
UC High swept the annual La Jolla Literary Society essay contest, winning first, second and third prizes, the students accepting awards, cash and prizes at a luncheon at the La Jolla Country Club on May 11.
The La Jolla Literary Society held their annual Student Essay Contest from March 17 through April 27, 2016. According to the submission form, this year’s essay was a fictional piece that had to include the following words: bicycle, hot sauce, dog, hose, and sweet. The three prizes were 1,000 dollars for the first place winner, 750 dollars for second place and 500 dollars for third place. The top five entries also received Amazon Kindles and 50 dollar Amazon gift cards.
UC High Junior Averie Wehr, Senior Karyssa Newsome, and Junior Bailey Evergen were the first, second and third place winners of the contest, respectively. “For me, writing is a natural part of my life. If I had one big struggle, it would have to be actually getting the story out onto the paper. I had a concept and a direction, but it took me a moment to get it going. Once my pen hit the paper, though, and I got over the initial block, the story pretty much wrote itself,” said Newsome.
“My short story is about a 26-year-old girl, Rory, who basically up and runs away from her life. After wandering around the streets for a few days, a woman who owns a restaurant takes her in and essentially, through her motherly attitude and killer cooking skills, puts Rory on the right path,” said Newsome.
“My story was about a woman preparing to see her husband arrive back home from war on V-J Day,” said Wehr. “Coming up with five pages worth of readable content and checking to make sure it was all within the same time period was one of the biggest struggles I faced,” she added.
“My story was about a girl and her brother. Her brother dies in a biking accident and then she misses him so she wants to commit suicide instead of bear the pain of living without her brother. But, at the last second before she commits suicide, a puppy comes in with the same eyes as her brother and she sees him in the dog and decides not to commit suicide,” said Evergen.
“Honestly, most of that money will probably end up going towards college fees. But I do have a few things for myself in mind: some new books, new journals and maybe a dress for graduation. I want to say that I’m going to save it, but…,” said Newsome.
“Most of my money will probably go towards college so I won’t be as deep in crippling debt,” said Wehr.
“I get to go to Disneyland with this money!” said Evergen.