Fortnightly Writing Comp: Gain & Loss [Winner - Oliwerko]

[Gravity]

Well excuse me for getting to this rather late. I forgot I had entered and did not think to check back. I guess I'm glad to see that I won the first comp entered even though it was not finished. I'm new to this competition thing so bear with me. Also, sorry I was not around to vote! I had some computer trouble... you all know how that is. I would have voted for Babar though!.

I think for this competition the theme should be about gaining something you really want while at the same time losing something very dear to you. This can be fiction or non fiction. Also, it can have any genre such as war, romance, science fiction, horror, etc, or a combination. It is up to you. It can be as long or as short as you want. The competition will end May 16th and voting will commence for up to a week after that. If no new entries appear after a amount of time then the competition will be shortened. I apologize if this is not the best idea for a theme but it will have to suffice for now. Let me know if this theme has been done before and I will come up with a different one.

Start Date: April 16th
End Date: May 16thMay 5th
Voting: May 16th - May 23rd May 5th - May 7th

Again, thank you for voting for me last time out. It means a lot to me. Looking forward to see if this gets any responses. Until next time.

[Oliwerko]

Identity Regained

I’m going to tell you a story of loss and gain. A story that many of you will be familiar with. A story that’s very well known to many of you. A story of compromise, decisions and balance. My story.

There was a time in my life, it wasn’t that long ago, when I missed almost nothing. I had a great family, great friends, I was successful in almost anything I did. It seemed that there was nothing to worry about, yet a big change in my thinking was about to take place.

I’ve come to a point where things got stereotypical enough for me to begin to see the flaws of my life. It was thanks to this stereotypical repetition of the same situations that they have been slowly revealing themselves, one by one. I began to see the pattern of it all. I began to see a pattern in how people react, how they treat what you say and what you do. I began to lose the illusion of how everyone is different, I began to understand the workings of the society â€" at least I thought so at that time.

To put it simply â€" I thought that no one understands me, no one wants to hear what I have to say, and no one is interested in listening to me at all. At the same time, however, I knew that this is the feeling everyone has from time to time. I knew it was a cliché that was here thousands of times before; I knew I was just another one that had to go through it. I knew it.

I began to accept that I share interests with only a few people and that I have to be careful when talking about things I want to. I began to accept that many people regard me eccentric, if not even insane. Not that I wasn’t insane, I just felt that there was too little insanity like my own in the world.

Some experiences were pretty rough. I’ve lost some friends because what I’ve done. I’ve made some unnecessary enemies, I made people talk rubbish about me. I’ve made….lots of things that hurt me back then, some of which hurt to this very day. But I don’t regret it. It was an important lesson to me. A lesson that’s very hard to take, and even harder to understand.

Soon I began to accommodate to these conditions. I stopped talking things I found unacceptable for others to hear, I stopped doing things I used to do before; I stopped being myself. I tried not to think about it, for every time I did, I saw that I can’t get rid of myself, I can’t get rid of my thoughts, my attitudes, interests, opinions â€" my nature.

Funny thing is â€" the effort paid off. People seemed to like me a lot more, began to be friendlier, more agreeable and understanding. It felt good â€" for once I thought that I don’t need more, that this is what I was missing and what I was trying to achieve; that this is the point where I wanted to get.

I was wrong.

All the thoughts I have been pushing into the ground began to resurface with a much bigger force than ever before. Whenever I did something because it was ‘normal’, and not because I wanted to do it, there came this shrieking voice, yelling “Hey! That’s not you!” Every single time, louder and louder. At one point, I was really struggling what to do â€" and had to decide between the common and the natural (for me, that is).

Hell, it was hard. Harder than I could imagine. “Why should I go back from where I was glad I got out of? Why should I throw all of this away?” â€" I kept asking myself.

You know, questions are easy to ask. Getting the answers, that’s hard. And even harder is acting according to them. That’s the true art of strong will.

And so I had many, many sleepless nights I spent thinking about which way should I take. I remembered very vividly how I was often left alone only with my thoughts before I started to talk and act like I thought was appropriate. But there was still this little voice whispering to me every single second: “Be inappropriate!”

And so I did. I came to a point where everything seemed to have lost its sense. I ceased to see the point in hypocrisy for the sake of popularity. I ceased to see where acting ‘normally’ would lead me. Indeed, I knew that should I stop act so, I would lose all the understanding and friendliness from the others. But as I said â€" there was no point. No point in going on with this charade, which was leading nowhere, no matter how hard I tried to overlook it.

By that time, I decided to stay myself, even if it meant to be totally forgotten by this world. If I was to be forgotten, I wanted to be forgotten as myself. This wasn’t an easy decision to make. It took some hell of an effort to even accept it, not mentioning what was about to follow. I, once again, began to be looked at strangely at times, for things I said and thought. Once again, I began to feel that no one understands me.

Once again, I felt it was the same cliché as before. But now, it felt different. Too convincing not to believe it. It felt somewhat too…..real.

In the end, I don’t know for sure if I have done the right decision or not. But that’s not what matters now anyway. What matters is that I believe it was right and that I believe that being myself is worth it. What matters are the people who have stayed by my side from day one to this very day, the people that don’t mind me as I am. They are the ones being myself is worth for.

Looking back â€" I don’t have anything to regret. Sure, I have lost a lot of understanding and a lot of friends. But I have gained the feeling that I’m really who I am and who I want to be, and that’s indescribable. I would willingly lose dozens of ‘friends’ of the kind I did when I decided to be who I am; only for the few of the true ones, because in the end, they are all that matters, aren’t they?

[Stupot]

Start Date: April 16th
End Date: May 16th
Voting: May 16th - May 23rd

Thats one hell of a fortnight...

[Oliwerko]

It's also one hell of a 'competition'...

[Gravity]

Start Date: April 16th
End Date: May 16th
Voting: May 16th - May 23rd

Thats one hell of a fortnight...

Yes, I'm well aware that the length I set in is a bit longer than usual. But given how this event doesn't always get the most submissions I thought it was a good amount of time. Should a decent number of people submit something the duration will be shortened, of course. This is just to ensure that anyone who wants to enter in a piece has ample time to do so but as soon as it is apparent that this event has stagnated or that everyone who is interested has submitted something, then the competition will be closed and voting will commence. I just felt it was best to give more than enough time to enter than to make people feel they are forced to come up with something quickly and in doing so not being able to submit something they are pleased with. But as said, the length can always be shortened.

Anyway, good first entry. Does anyone else plan to submit something or should we just declare this a no contest? Cheers.

[Atelier]

Here's a renga (like a haiku but follows the pattern of 5,7,5 7,7) I just wrote. Its shows what the caterpillar has to lose to gain. A bit patchy in parts so I might go back later for a re-write.

Caterpillar

Waddling, gorged on leaves,
Caterpillar, on a branch;
   How ugly it seems.

Bane of all the gardeners...
   Yet a sparrow's confection.

Weeks later, who knew?
Swaddled in a leather coat,
   Hanging, on a branch.

Heedless to the world around,
   Braving Mother's elements.

Only time will show,
How caterpillar changes,
   From bane to beauty!

The black coat is shed,
Thrown aside, tossed away and
   Lo! caterpillar!

Is no longer a 'pillar.
   But a gossamer beauty.

Queen of all insects,
Married to the dragonfly;
   A caterpillar?

Surely a diff'rent species,
   My eyes: do they guile me!

[Gravity]

Well I don't see any real need to drag this competition on. As there has been sufficient time and limited entries this event will now end on May 5th, so if you have anything you wish to submit please get it in before then. Voting has also been changed to May 5th until May 7th. Thank you.

[Gravity]

Well as much as I dislike the fact, this event was not very successful- so let's go ahead and cast our votes for the two people that did submit a piece. They were both good in my opinion.

[Wonkyth]

My vote goes to Oliwerko, as more story is nearly always good, and in this case it is.

[Gravity]

Oliwerko gets my vote as well. And seeing as this events was not very successful, I don't see any point in extending the voting process. So on that note, congrats Oliwerko. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for the next event.

[Oliwerko]

Thanks for votes both of you. I'll come up with something shortly.

Let's hope it will be a better shot than this one.