Adaptation

This piece powerfully captures the pressures placed upon young people. These are pressures that have been made worse by the pandemic and the resulting restrictions but they are not limited to this. Amidst the changing rules and regulations this author expresses the challenge of living up to the ever-increasing expectations that the examination system creates.

In this story the author explores the difficult emotions that COVID-19 has brought to the surface and, through a vivid portrait of a school playground, creates a moving portrayal of what it is like to be a young person at school in 2020.

This young storyteller decided to take the bull by the horns and address a series of letters to the pandemic itself. These letters cleverly show the frustrations, the fears, the hopes and also the wild fluctuations that have characterised the last year.

Write Back is all about finding one’s own voice but this piece explains why that is so difficult when one’s thoughts are crowded out by the constant barrage of rules, regulations, restrictions and expectations that young people find placed upon them.

Taking a very different approach, this young author considers 2020 alongside 1950. Could the problems be similar? And is there hope that we can escape from the problems of the past?