Creative Writing Competition 2024: Lower Division, 1st Place

Once there was a little girl named Maggie. She never really thought about gratitude a lot until her
school teacher, Ms. Jennings, asked the students to write about what they were grateful for. Maggie
thought really hard, but she couldn’t think of anything she was grateful for.
At the end of the day while checking all the children’s papers, Ms. Jennings saw that Maggie had
not written anything on her paper. Ms. Jennings asked, “Maggie, why have you not written
anything on your paper?” Maggie answered by saying that she could not think of anything that she
was grateful for. Ms. Jennings ruffled Maggie’s hair and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll think of
something soon”.

Maggie walked home that day thinking about her assignment. Maggie lived in a small but beautiful
home and had a wonderful family. She had all the things that an 8-year-old needed. At home, she
finished her math homework and had a lovely dinner with her family in the evening. After dinner,
she drew in her drawing book with her favorite set of watercolors. Painting with watercolors was
one of Maggie’s favorite hobbies. Soon she was tired and went to bed. That night Maggie had a
dream.

In the dream Maggie was walking through a beautiful park. She saw a little girl who had brown
hair and was wearing a white shirt and a cute pink sweater sitting on a sidewalk next to a tree. She
walked over to talk to the little girl and say hello to her. When Maggie got closer, she saw that the
little girl was drawing on the sidewalk with only one piece of chalk.

“Hi! My name is Maggie. What is yours?” said Maggie. The little girl answered, “My name is
Anna”. “Where did you get that piece of chalk?” Maggie asked. Anna said with a sparkle in her
eye, “It was my birthday present. I just turned six last month. My mom worked hard to get me this
piece of chalk because we didn’t have money for a whole set.” Anna seemed very happy to have
that piece of chalk and continued to draw.

Maggie saw the wonderful drawing that Anna had made on the sidewalk, which was filled with
shimmering, colorful birds, flowers, unicorns, butterflies, stars, forests, fairies, rainbows and more.
Maggie noticed that even though the drawing was made with only one piece of chalk with one
color, Anna’s drawing was full of life, color, and imagination that the things in her drawing
appeared real. Maggie was amazed and wanted to try drawing with that piece of chalk so she asked
Anna if she could. “Of course!” Anna said.

Maggie took the chalk piece from Anna and started drawing. As she was drawing, she noticed that
her drawing was not as colorful as Anna’s. No matter how hard Maggie tried, her drawing was not
as beautiful or life-like as Anna’s. Anna asked Maggie, “Can I try?”. She took the piece of chalk
from Maggie and started drawing colorful pictures again.

That is when Maggie realized that Anna was happy and grateful to have that one piece of chalk for
drawing. It didn’t matter that she did not have that whole chalk set. It was Anna and her gratitude
that made her drawings full of color. Maggie asked for the piece of chalk and started to draw again.
But this time she thought of all the things she was grateful for and lucky to have - her full box of
watercolors, her favorite books, her favorite doll, her favorite dress, her friends, her mom, dad and
her grandparents and her small, but warm and beautiful home.

She was grateful to go to the beach to collect shells with her mom. She was grateful for the time
she got to bike in Yosemite and hike with her mom and dad. She was grateful for her dad who
helped with her science project. She was grateful for the all the times she rode her bike in the park
with her family.
She was grateful for the sleepovers with her friends and the time she spent playing board games
with them. She was grateful for her granddad who planted sunflowers in her garden with her. She
was grateful for her grandmom who showed her how to crochet.

As she was thinking about this, she saw that her drawings on the sidewalk started to fill in with
color and they became full of life. Maggie was so overjoyed to see the colorful drawings and she
started to draw all the things that she was grateful for. Maggie realized that being grateful for
everything you have is a gift and it is magical. Maggie woke up and drew a picture of all the things
that she was grateful for, just like in the dream. She was very excited to share her drawing with
Ms. Jennings and her class. As Maggie was walking to school, with her drawing in her backpack,
she realized she was grateful for Anna the little girl in her dream who taught her about being grateful.