TCS students from 9th, 10th, and 12th grades showcased their creativity and writing skills in Marymount School’s short story contest, held in October and November 2024.

173 students from various schools participated in Marymount School’s short story contest. TCS students excelled, winning top spots in both age categories. Tomás Reinoso Trujillo earned second place in the 11-14 group with El hombre de la ventana azul. In the 15-18 group, Alicia Peláez Klinkert won first place with No Mires atrás, and Emilio Jaramillo Fernández took third place with La Puerta.

“The contest was aimed at middle and high school students. The idea was for them to arrive at the contest with a well-developed idea in their minds. However, they had to show that it was their own creation, in front of a contest delegate,” Erika Atehortua, Spanish teacher, said.

Before the competition, students reflected on the theme and direction they wanted their stories to take. For Alicia, the inspiration for her winning story came unexpectedly as she was heading to the competition.

“What actually inspired me to write this story was me walking to the library, where I started to think, ‘What am I gonna write about?’. I also love suspense and criminal stories, so I wanted to create something that had that vibe,” Alicia Pelaez,11th grader, said.

On the other hand, unlike Alicia’s spontaneous inspiration, other participants, like Senior, Isabel Acosta, took a more structured approach. They carefully planned their stories in advance in order to be more productive when the time of the competition came.

“I wrote the ideas of what I wanted to write based on the guidelines and then once I mapped out what I wanted to write about, I wrote it down into a piece of paper, sort of memorized the structure when I got to the contest I had very clear what I wanted to write about,” Isabel Acosta, senior, said.

Furthermore, the story had to be written in a very short period of time with a limited word count. Fitting the entire structure of a story into such a small space was challenging for many students, even for those who had planned and memorized their ideas in advance.

“When I was writing my tale, I really struggled to think on the spot. My story was messy because it was like a very quick draft, I couldn’t use what I had already planned beforehand,” Acosta said.

The winning story, “No Mires Atrás”, by  Alicia Pelaez captivated the judges with its open-ended plot. What earned her the winning prize was the story’s ability to invite readers to immerse themselves in the narrative and draw their own interpretations of the unfolding events.

“Well, it presented a theme, let’s say a plot, that remained somewhat open-ended. In other words, the reader, when engaging with it, forms their own explanation of the events. That’s what makes it so enriching because the winner proposed a story that the reader can complete. I think that makes it both captivating and challenging as a reader,” Atehortua said.

These types of events often lack participation from students at TCS. However, contests like this are very beneficial to students in terms of developing their creativity and practicing writing skills.

“These types of contests, which are related to reading, writing, and oral skills, benefit all students because they present challenges in which they must demonstrate the development they have had in these skills as they grow. I believe that the more it is done, the greater the participation of students there will be,” Atehortua said.