There is a poetic mind among us.”Flee
Darkness runs now through my veins,
Poisoning my heart with pains.
Cold and lonely as the sea,
My inner child now must flee
Back to nights of cricket song,
Where my dreams can do no wrong.
And breezy days do recline
In a leafy gold design.
Back to days of gleaming white,
And a balmy day’s delight.
Here I flee in darkest hour,
Before my mind the pain devour.”
Ever since she was a little girl, junior Sophia West has been writing her thoughts down on paper.
“It’s become second nature,” she said about writing every day.
West said that creative writing has become her secret weapon. Through the years she has won a Gold Key, a state award, and been named a Heintzelman finalist, along with many other honorable mentions.
West mostly writes fantasy or non-fiction. Her stories are full of subjects like dystopias, albinism, and mental disorders, topics that her teachers say make her stories unique and interesting.
“If she had been born twenty years ago she would have written the Hunger Games,” English and film teacher David Weintraub said. West was in his global class last year. “She has the best twisted imagination, which really comes through in her works in and out of school. The best thing about Sophia is that she has an imagination, endless capacity for inventiveness and a really humble sense of her own imperfections. Not to mention a real genuine passion to improve which speaks to her maturity and her strengths.”
At the age of ten West would write under her sheets with a flashlight late at night. Recently, however, unique writing has become recognized by various English teachers around South. Earlier this year, Weintraub recruited her to help select next year’s One School, One Book choice, which consisted of parents, faculty, and only three other students beside West.
West employed her voice and her extensive knowledge about literature to rise to the occasion and help the school pick a fun and exciting book for the student body.
“What’s really impressive is the maturity she brings to the committee- considering there are ten teachers on the committee in addition to the students,” Weintraub said. “It’s just really impressive that she is so confident and mature even with a group of very imposing and threatening teachers.”
West sees writing as more than just a way to exercise her creativity and share her ideas with others. She sees it as a catharsis for everyday life.
“[Writing’s] a release [for] any problem you ever have,” West said. “It’s free therapy.”
Last summer this “therapy” helped West get through a very tough period. Her mother was diagnosed with the skin cancer melanoma and there were complications regarding the surgery.
“When things were all really tense, trying to handle…the possibility that the cancer had spread was a lot to take in,” West said. “We got into a lot of arguments and a lot of my emotions ended up being written down in poetry.”
She went on to say how this kind of emotional writing is the best writing because it is honest and from the heart, and that the most well known poetry and stories are those that come from real emotions. West often finds herself in search of books with genuine emotion. The books she likes often depend on where she is in her life, and what kind of emotions she is feeling, she said.
Some of her favorites remain constant, such as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and And Then There were None by Agatha Christie. West finds more inspiration in these specific books than any specific authors.
Beyond writing, West is also known for her beautiful mosaics. She has won many Scholastic Silver Key and honorable mention awards. She plans to T.A. for one of Jeffrey Wixon’s Mixed Media classes during her upcoming senior year.
As for the future, West has many different ideas on what she could be. Although she would love to write professionally, she said she is currently leaning more towards being a social worker or psychologist.
No matter what career she ends up going into later in life, she is firm in that she will always be writing. “I’ve got the bug and it’s incurable whether I like it or not,” she said.
If you want to check out more of her work follow these links:
Poetry:
Blackberry- http://word.office.live.com/wv/WordView.aspx?FBsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fattachments%2Fdoc_preview.php%3Fmid%3Did.212571412177834%26id%3D8dcb82c717507e685dc4274aa6f11364%26metadata&access_token=1594151867%3AAQD8SmQK2iGf5mBl&title=Blackberry
The Barn Among the Pines- http://word.office.live.com/wv/WordView.aspx?FBsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fattachments%2Fdoc_preview.php%3Fmid%3Did.212571412177834%26id%3D364f908cfeec748dd4df3822a3eb9b0e%26metadata&access_token=1594151867%3AAQBqQwXp3Xel1ZPa&title=The+Barn+Among+the+Pines
Flee- http://word.office.live.com/wv/WordView.aspx?FBsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fattachments%2Fdoc_preview.php%3Fmid%3Did.212571412177834%26id%3D48c978eeb7a1f033906505316307ba4b%26metadata&access_token=1594151867%3AAQCwLmVus400J5yi&title=Flee
Bullet in the Blue Sky- http://word.office.live.com/wv/WordView.aspx?FBsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fattachments%2Fdoc_preview.php%3Fmid%3Did.212571412177834%26id%3D7efaced704c89399f57a0cb067db247d%26metadata&access_token=1594151867%3AAQBF93TJHh0vVVOy&title=Bullet+in+the+Blue+Sky
Short Story:
