Student Work

The path is clear as she continues along. The day too is clear. The path, familiar and comforting, continues beyond the sight of any eye. Knowing no end she continues blindly but with full vision. The sun’s rays bring her into consciousness that she knows as her life. She can see that nothing obstructs her way and she is clear to proceed.

Farther down the path, the atmosphere changes. She is feeling uneasy, without known reason. Still, as the path is clear, she continues down the path. Suddenly, she trips over a rock in the path, but manages not to fall. Continuing on the path she ponders, “That wasn’t there before,” she thinks to herself. She feels more uneasy as she continues to ponder how she missed sight of the rock. She brushes it off as nothing. She doesn’t want anything to hold her back.

Looking into the previously clear sky, she sees clouds begin to roll in. They are not the mundane white and fluffy ones that she would normally daydream of. These clouds have personalities, and by their appearance they are not welcoming. As the clouds eliminate the distance the light starts to fade into gray. Eventually there is total cloud cover and the sun is no longer visible. The path, however, is still visible and the end is still not to be seen, so she continues.

She increases her pace as walks along the path. Her walk evolves into a trot. Trotting along she trips over another rock. Looking down, she sees another rock landing into her path off of the side. She trots over that. She looks up again; the path still has no end in sight. The clouds, now surrounding the sky, contract, squeezing the light out. Darkness begins to set. She trips again, over two rocks this time, and looks back to sight her roadblocks. Looking forward once more she trips, this time she falls. She vaults up again and evolves her trot into a run. She trips again and again as the rocks begin to litter the road now.

She falls again, this time a rock hits her as she is on the ground. “Where are these coming from!?” she says aloud. There is no answer, for no one is there. She springs up once more and begins to pant with her run. The horizon and her surroundings begin to darken once more. She tries to speed up her run. She falls once more. Now struggling to get up, the darkness begins to surround her. The only light is now in front of her. Now she runs as fast as she can towards the light. Everything else is now complete darkness.

The light ahead is starting to fade. She pushes herself as far as she can. The rock she trips over sends her forward into the ground, now unseen. The light fades to black and now there is nothing to be seen. She begins to whimper on the ground. The whimper turns into a cry, and the cry into a sob. Now the rocks begin to fly, this time they pelt her. She screams in pain. Wailing she fights her way to standing and begins to run to the way the light once was.  The rocks follow her everywhere she tries to run and hide. There is no escape.

Now she feels heat, coming from her side. She looks out and sees there is some light off into the distance. She is drawn towards it and she goes to it, acting almost as if her free will was gone. There is an edge up in front of her. She continues towards it.

She reaches the edge and peers over. The light is sourced by a fire; one that has no end. The fire is below her but stretches on for an eternity. The clouds begin to whisper, unintelligibly at first. The whispers begin to rise in volume, “It’s the only way out,” one says, “There’s no hope in darkness,” another one says. They begin to hiss and growl at her. The voices become twisted into her mind. A chant begins among the clouds, “Do it!” and again, “Do it!” and the chant continues. She is overcome by the voices, the hissing, and the growling. She begins to scream, the loudest she has ever done before. She is left broken down at the side of the edge.

Finally she succumbs to her surroundings. A voice from her mind says,
“Do it,” and everything is quiet. She stands perched on the edge of the ravine of fire. She leans over and lets the rest take over. Her heart finally filled by warmth.

Timothy Breen

AP English-Lambert

September 20, 2012

Nafisat Salman                                                                                                            9/30/12           

Ms. Lambert

AP Language and Composition

Declaration to end child trafficking and modern day slavery

We are the sons and daughters of living mothers. We are the living fresh of another human being. We are the leaders and the Heroes of tomorrow. We are the uneducated students with powerful minds. We are brother and sisters with the same Dreams. Our struggle is our everyday fight to live, to be free, and to be happy.  We work for hours, days, months and years begging for even the minimum wage. We have been blinded from society, and deafened by lies.  We have been beaten with words, stick, belt and wires. We are not Object and should not be treated like one. We are living lives that needs to be respected. We have been hidden from society, education, and our rights. We are living in danger, diseases.

Let us not give up our body for others sexual pleasure.  Let us come together and remind the world that we are their forgotten sisters, brothers, sons, daughter and friends. Lets us remind them that we are the 1.2 million possible heroes and leaders of tomorrow. Let us overcome our fear and untie the blindfold that our oppressors have covered our eyes with.  Let us come together and conquer this crime. The crime against humanity!

We are important! We are not slaves, animals and living objects! We are not just numbers or letter without any meaning. We are powerful living forces that contribute to our world. We are going to be history of child trafficking and modern day slavery. History! History, I tell you my brothers and sisters. We shall be free, and free the other unheard crying souls.