Sub-junior 2nd Prize Winning Story - A Lesson Learnt

“A Lesson Learnt” by Aneshka Venkama, Vijay International School of Praslin, Seychelles, is the Second Prize winning story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2020.

Aneshka lives on Praslin Island in the Republic of Seychelles together with her family. She started her love for books in early Grade 4, and got an interesting book series, called Warriors by Erin Hunter. They really inspired her and she started putting the vocabulary from her books, into her school work. She was also encouraged by her Grade 4 teacher, which gave her more motivation on her ambition of becoming a writer. Her story is all about an ungrateful girl living with her grandmother who wants to abandon her small village for a bigger city. Soon, she realises otherwise.

A Lesson Learnt

Once, there was a small, unkept and rather poor village. Houses there were made out of stone, and wood. They were very worn down, and could collapse at any second. People had to work hard to feed themselves, and no money could be wasted. In this tiny village, was a young teenager, named Harriet. She lived in a wooden hut, with her old grandma. Harriet had dreamed to move to a bigger city, where there was much cooler stuff, but, atlas, she never even visited those cities even for a brief moment.

It was now the summer holidays and all of Harriet’s friends have left off for a long vacation in the big cities. Last summer, her friends told her some heart racing stories of their expedition, in those cities. Then, there was Harriet, who was bored all summer long, and couldn’t even go to the nearest city for a moment.

Harriet gloomily walked into the hut, and collapsed onto the muddy brown couch. “Are you okay, dear?” Her grandma finally asked. “No!’ Harriet burst out. “My friends are all taking trips to other cities, even countries, and I’m stuck in this place!” Harriet’s Grandma was startled. “Harriet,” She began. Immediately, Harriet interrupted. “I’m going to my room!” she then bolted towards her room.

This argument had carried on for weeks, until one day, Harriet woke up. She padded outside to look at the golden, glistening sun raising over the horizon, to stand firm and tall against the ocean blue sky.

Soon after, her grandma came outside. She went over to stand near Harriet, “Listen, Harriet.” She announced. “See look at the sky,” she began. “Isn’t it beautiful? When you’re in the big cities, you won’t see that. Look at the beach, isn’t it marvelous? You won’t find that in a city, would you?” just then, a few wolf cubs could be spotted at the end of the village. “See those wolf cubs? Aren’t they just so magnificent? I don’t think you would find them crawling around a big city, would you?” her gran explained, before going back inside. This made Harriet realize, how beautiful life is, and she’s lucky to even live in a village.