old men

I would be lying through my teeth if I said I've seen the ups and the downs of the world, I have been very privileged in my time here on Earth and I think that as someone as blessed as I am, I have very little perspective of those who have not been so fortunate. I work as a counselor at a day camp a couple weeks in the summer and this past week I was in Winooski, Vermont. Not a particularly prosperous town but beautiful in its own way. I was outside waiting for my co-counselor to get the girls organized, bathroomed, and ready for jump-choice when an older man, totally sloshed, walked up to the back door of the gym and inquired about the activities going on inside. The camp co-ordinator, a no nonsense lady who didn't have time for him politely shooed him away. I was on the outside of a fence surrounding the backyard of the gym with five or six cones placed a couple meters away to keep any trespassers out and all the girls in.

Thoughts on old, drunken men

By Isabella Blanchard
Essex High School, Grade 9

I would be lying through my teeth if I said I've seen the ups and the downs of the world. I have been very privileged in my time here on Earth and I think that as someone as blessed as I am, I have very little perspective on those who have not been so fortunate.