Middle School. Two words that most likely bring more bad memories to mind than good ones. Awkward school dances, switching classes for the first time, getting asked on dates via notebook paper in the middle of History class, and more. Yeah, we all went through it. There are bright spots to middle school, however. It is usually the first time students participate in band. It can be the first time students become athletes and play on sports teams. It can also be the first time students realize how much they enjoy the arts.

My version of the arts covers anything from drawing to acting to writing, and everything in between. When I was in middle school, I realized something about myself that I would eventually forget and then remember again years later. I realized how much I enjoy to write as a way of self expression, but also as a way of communication.

This is all thanks to a competition called Power of The Pen.

Power of the Pen is an interscholastic writing league that was started in 1986 by a woman named Lorraine B. Merrill. It is a non-profit writing program and it is exclusively for those who live in Ohio and are in the seventh or eighth grade. Teams are created at different schools around the state, and they are usually no bigger than six people for each grade level. After the teams have been established, practices are held for the students to hone their writing skills. The competition element of this program is that students are given a prompt, and then have 40 minutes to write a story on that prompt. They are then rated 1-6 on their story, 6 being the lowest ranking and 1 being the highest ranking. At each competition, participants write three different stories and then wait to see if they score high enough on all three to place in the top 12 of all participants for their grade level. Those that either place or make the cut based on their scores move onto the next level of competition. There is a district level competition, a regional level competition and a state level competition that is held at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. At the state level, three stories are written by each participant and then if a participant scores high enough they write again in a fourth and final round to see if they will place and/or win scholarship money.

Power of the Pen is a great way, in my opinion, for students to explore their creative side through writing. I was lucky enough to participate in Power of the Pen during both my seventh and eighth grade years in middle school. My teams were competitive and we placed at competitions individually and as a team.

I am thankful for my time in Power of the Pen because of all that I experienced. I was faced with hard prompts, imaginative prompts, prompts that required a lot of thought, etc. I experienced what it was like to take my creativity, mold it into anything I wanted it to be, and then put it down on paper. Without Power of the Pen, I would not have reconnected with writing later on in life and I would not be on track to become a professional in the field of Public Relations.

Thank you, Power of the Pen, for opening a door to a world full of writing, creativity, and endless opportunities.