Young writers share their pain, triumphs

Maggie, a senior at Larry M. Simmons High School in Petaluma, has seen a lot in her 17 years and some of it has been ugly.

Sexual abuse, drugs, self-harm — Maggie has suffered and endured.

On Wednesday she was rewarded not just for her endurance, but her eloquence. She won top prize at the annual Sonoma County Juvenile Justice Commission essay contest in a brief ceremony held at the Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa.

Her full name, as well as those of others who were honored Wednesday, was withheld because she is a juvenile in the justice system.

“My story is something I used to be ashamed of,” she said after the ceremony. “My past isn’t an excuse for me to fail, it’s a reason for me to be stronger.”

The seven-year-old contest is open to 12- to 18-year-old residents of Sonoma County group homes, residential juvenile justice facilities or who are currently attending community school.

Winners were awarded gift certificates to Borders bookstores.

One contest judge, Santa Rosa police officer Alan Rosenthal, read the 95 essays, spending hours poring over heartbreaking stories and anecdotes of painful beginnings to young lives.

“They start out with these sad thoughts but a lot of them came through and came up with solutions and talked about hope,” he said. “I came away with hope for our future.”

“Most of these were very uplifting,” said Superior Court Judge Allan Hardcastle, who presented the awards Wednesday.

Efren, a senior set to graduate from Hanna Boys Center in June, used his essay to praise and credit his longtime girlfriend as a role model who steered him out of gang involvement that had absorbed more than five years of his life.

“I grew up around it, my brothers were in it. At that time I thought I couldn’t be nothing else,” he said of “gang-banging.”

“She never gave up on me.”

Efren earned a scholarship to attend Landmark College in Vermont and will enroll as a freshman next fall.

Students on Wednesday described the process of writing as almost therapeutic.

One of the essay options was “What person has played an important role in your life and why?”

Natalie, a 17-year-old senior who attends Simmons High, operated by the Family Life Center in Petaluma, said that after years of suffering under peer pressure and making poor decisions, she has become the most important voice in her own life.

“I have been through a lot in the last couple of years and I think that it’s one of the most important things that I have learned,” she said. “It’s good for me to get out of my comfort zone and let people see me a little bit.”

Maggie, who dreams of attending UC Berkeley and eventually opening a shelter for battered and abused women, said writing has become an important part of who she is.

She has already started writing an autobiography.

“I want to write my life,” she said.

Staff Writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com.