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1st Prize| The Stream | William Childs (12B)
The wooden stairs creak above me as they spray dust on my coal-black hair. I lie there, unnoticed, unbothered, unseen, surrounded by old boxes and shabby shoes that once belonged to a woman whose face I can’t seem to remember. I have a fear of spiders, although, at this moment, they don’t seem to scare me, as they make their way across beautifully engineered webs. A gentle stream of light starts to peek through the cracks of the closet door and a familiar voice calls out to me – “We’re going out! Lunch is on the stove.” I’m not hungry, but I get up anyway, as my back is beginning to ache due to the irregularly shaped stone floor. As I turn to close the door behind me, I look back into the darkened room one last time and am overcome by a heart-wrenching feeling of emptiness. It’ll pass. Right? (…)
2nd Prize | Amadis | Madalena Pinto (12J)
Whether life started from water or not doesn´t matter a whole lot. It’s not relevant to know how everything came to be, in this case. The only thing that may be of some importance may be that Amadis had a small raft and no idea why everything was the way it is. Not that he cared that much, too. The sea seemed to stretch for miles and miles, not a single island, not even a rock, that was just the way thing were, that’s how Amadis always had remembered, floating in a raft and nothing else. Absolutely nothing. Amadis liked the way he lived, why would he want more? He didn’t think about his condition, about the meaning of being or some other complex feeling too hard to even decipher (Amadis thought it was a waste of time to ponder questions which would always be left unanswered) (…)
3rd Prize | ex aequo | Tarakami | Rodrigo Rato (12B)
From where I’m from it is said that, inside one cloudy forest, there’s a spirit named Takarami with infinite wisdom and the ability to give guidance to anyone in order to fulfil their destiny. A long time ago, during a walk through said forest, near a trunk, I saw a wild racoon picking berries from the ground. Suddenly the animal noticed me and, step by step, walked in my direction. Now being as close to me as a hungry woodpecker is of a tree trunk, the raccoon stood up and calmly said “Everyone is a world”.
That sentence confused me. How could that even be possible? Aside the scientific impossibility, philosophically speaking it also didn’t make any kind of sense to me. I argued continuously with the animal but to no avail. Despite my pleas for enlightenment, the raccoon refused to elaborate, only saying “once you understand all your misconceptions about our nature and take a look inside, you’ll know”. Shortly after this last sentence, the pesky animal left, disappearing into the misty clouds. (…)
3rd Prize | ex aequo | Every person is a world- a commentary | Ícaro (12I)
If every person is a world, then we’re all as clueless about each other as we are about anywhere further than Mars.
That may seem harsh, but it’s true. We pass by hundreds, thousands of people, every day. We interact with a few dozens or so, think about maybe twenty once the interaction is over, and care about a select few that we can probably count with our fingers. And even those surprise us every day, like we’re only just meeting them.
I use the word “care” quite intentionally: like I said, to claim we “know” anyone is one of the biggest acts of hubris I can think of. We know what others show us, and as I’m sure we all know, what we show others is a carefully curated exhibition of the best of us (or what we consider the best)- to pretend we don’t know that others do the same is foolish.
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Video
1st Prize | Every Person Is a World | Inês Paulino (10F)
2nd Prize | 7 Worlds Within | Eduardo Cruz (10C)
Camões Creative Writing 