National Young Writer Awards

Presentation of the National Young Writer Awards Event

Ankhan from Dunmow reached the Rotary National Young Writer competition final and was placed 2nd overall in the 2024/25 competition. The theme this year was 'Wonderful Water'. The aims and objectives of the competition was to encourage young people to -

• be creative

• use their writing skills

• write with imagination and creativity 

Ankhan was the runner-up in the intermediate class and can be seen receiving her trophy, certificate and prize (voucher) from Jenny Versey, Rotary District 1240 Youth Writer coordinator.  

Ankan's entry is shown below:

                                     Wonderful Water 

“Children, gather round.” King Ocean stroked his beard of sea-kelp as his children swam towards him. “I am getting old. I need to find a worthy successor for the throne, one of you three.”

Standing up, the King glided towards a picture of a human.

“I have a challenge for you to prove yourself as a leader. This is my friend, man. Your challenge is to travel to the man’s home, coexist with him and leave a long-lasting impact. After all of you have spent 5 mer-days (one man-month) with the man, I’ll meet him and he’ll tell me how you all treated him. I want Tsunami to go first, then Flood, lastly River. Tsunami, you leave tomorrow.” 

With that, the old King shuffled out of the coral-gilded door, leaving the three shocked heirs staring at each other. Tsunami, realising that he had less than a day to prepare, swam through the door and up to his chambers. Taking a seat on his sea-sponge lined bed, he began thinking about his strategy. 

Father had said, “Make an impact”, and he took that advice literally. Deciding to use all his might, Tsunami shapeshifted into a vast, wave-like form, a tsunami. He crashed with force onto land and hurtled towards the man’s house. 

“La-di-da-di-da…” the man was heading home from the bakery. 

Hearing a deep rumbling, he saw a huge wave making its way towards his house, too fast for him or anyone to do anything. Watching was his only option as Tsunami crashed into his house. 

Tsunami chuckled. “That must have made an impact”. 

Dashing into the house, the man waded through Tsunami’s murky aftermath. 

“What have you done? Tsunami?” the man sobbed as he saw his possessions floating, “Leave. LEAVE. NOW!”

Tsunami turned around and silently made his way back to the beach, before disappearing into the ocean. 

Next was Flood. Learning from Tsunami’s mistakes, Flood decided he had to make an impact, but slowly. 

As he rose from the ocean, he ebbed towards the valley which the man lived in. Entering the cottage day-by-day, he occupied every crack and corner. Fuming, the man noticed the constantly growing level of water. 

“Flood? Is that you?” Squelching towards the sink, he went on, “You’re not helping me. At all! You’re making my life harder. This is not co-existence. Leave! I’ve seen enough.” 

Ashamed, Flood retreated into the ocean.

Finally, it was River’s turn, who decided to apply her learnings and take a different approach. Starting as a trickle on top of a mountain, she let gravity pull her, gaining velocity steadily. Along the way, she was joined by several streams and brooks, thus growing as she headed to the valley.

“Thanks guys, it’ll all be worth it soon!”

Eventually, River became wide, meandering until she flowed beside the man’s house. He used her to drink, cook and wash with. Throughout the month, they talked and she learnt about science and technology from him. By the time the month was up the pair was inseparable.

“River… I can’t ever thank you enough for what you’ve done for me. You’ll be a friend for life.”

Pleased, the nurturing River headed back to the ocean with a slight smile playing on her face, thinking, “Leadership is more about kindness than it is about force.”