The spring season of the latter years of high school are an anxious time when students will , choose one: fall in love, drink too much, or whatever's available, work really hard, slack off, make your hopes soar, dash them to the depth or all of the above. In short, they are living,trying out who they want to be.Increasingly ,in a stressed-out age,there's a private space to which more and more of these teenagers retreat---their journals.High school students are big purchasers of the journals in bookshops and stores like "Target",because even amid the Internet age or perhaps because of it,any teenager who can pick up a pencil can also pick up a notebook,anyone.That's what's so great about writing.You create a private world of the self,spill over the pages,fill the boundaries.In 11 counties in the foothills and mountains of eastern Tennessee,juniors and seniors are participating in this year's Walter state community college-high school creative writing contest.Interest in the contest has grown. Encompassing fiction,nonfiction and poetry, more than 200 teenagers took part this year.Walt Stingson of Jefferson County High was among last year's winners. He wrote a note"To a rail splitter."Watching him,it looks so easy.One swing of the gold devil and the wood jumps apart.I try ,I practise in solitude,hoping to just one time hear that clapping burst and see the pieces multiply before my eyes." Another Jefferson High student, Kandeys Harara, wrote :"Daughters of eve.Daughters, forgive me, for I have eaten the fruit of deception and for ever cursed your immortality.However,the promises of the serpent were very persuasive and the temptation far too great." Gee,who hasn't felt like that? Over the years,PJ Brise Means,who teaches English at Walter state community college has looked at spidery contributions on minimalist scraps of paper and full-part hardbacks. One was called " Orange county 1968." "Teenagers have so much to say",she says."and clearly,even more,far more if we're willing to listen ,to reveal."This year's high school winners at Walter state community college will be chosen in April and published in the school's journal among these hills。
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