(Written by Tess Renfro)

The two ran, hand-in-hand, as the lights began to fade behind them. Their backs glowed as their shadows cast among the reedgrass in front of them.

Silence. The groans of the town had faded. The blaring car horns were lost in the sound of the dry grass grazing their legs as they ran. For miles, all that could be seen was reedgrass as tall as their hips or shoulders, stretching across the hills.

The familiar tree stood proudly on the edge of a hill; its branches sprawled in every direction, twisting and intertwining together.

Ava and Anna bounded towards the trunk with the beat of their footsteps cheering and motivating as drums. As they finally reached the roots of the tree, they collapsed to the ground. There, they lay panting; chests rising and falling, until their breath evened out and matched the serenity of the beautiful world around them.

“Let’s keep going!” Ava’s eyes beamed up at her older sister in expectation and hope. She was far too young to understand that life had so little to bring; her mind was just too full of hope and adventure.

Ava often dreamt of holding Anna’s hand as they ran through the hills. But instead of stopping at their tree, they continued to run. Past the dunes and the signs that lead them back home, through the fence that had entrapped them for so long, and to the edge of the world, wherever their feet would allow them to go.

Sometimes Ava would dream of a huge lake, with fish and lily pads, and the promise of change.

In darker times, she would dream of a long road, cracked and battered, and no matter how far the two of them walked, the road always led them back home.

“We can’t.” Anna said, running her fingers through Ava’s curly red hair. She began to hum Ava’s favorite lullaby, the same one their mother would rock them to sleep with.

“If I ran, would you come with me?”

“Don’t be stupid” Anna mumbled. Tears began to pool under her eyes as she spoke. “You need to understand that there’s nothing out there for us, Ava. If you ran, I wouldn’t follow you. I know you’re curious, but when you grow up you’ll understand. All we have left is each other. There’s nothing out there.”

The silence became unbearably deafening, and Ava decided to run. However it was no longer in spite of what had restricted her, it was the security of knowing that Anna would indeed be running behind her as she went. She heard Anna screaming her name as she chased her up and down the valleys, and to the wooden fence they had never dared to cross.

Ava waited for Anna to come, and by the time she caught up, she was sobbing. Her ragged green dress was stained with dirt and splattered in tears.

“If you go, I’m not following you Ava.”

“Come on!” Ava bent over and climbed through the space between the wooden planks. She didn’t turn around as she kept walking, in hopes that Anna had jumped the fence and would soon clench her hand as they walked together.

She could hear Anna’s sobs as she continued down the hill, but Ava never looked back.

She had walked about a mile until she saw the edge of the trees. They seemed to call her name as the occasional breeze came and went, and ruffled the branches in a dance of expectation.

She had never seen woods like these. When she began to immerse herself in the trees, for the first time ever she felt scared. The leaves and branches beneath her cracked as she stepped, while she watched many more leaves fall from the towering trees above.

The darkness of dusk crept, and began to fill the woods with dim moonlight. Ava started to hear more; a frog croaking, a twig breaking, an owl calling. She saw a deer grazing by a dogwood tree in front of her, and as she took another step forward, the deer cocked it’s head and stared at her.

The sound of the shot was deafening. Her ears rang as the woods spun around her, and she watched the deer dash away; dancing between the trees as if on stage.
She hadn’t seen the hunter, he had been aiming for the doe that escaped death.

She collapsed to the ground and watched the stars and trees that hovered above her twist and spin like a merry-go-round. She clasped her hands to her stomach and felt her blood begin to pool around her.

She closed her eyes and pictured herself floating in the lake she so often dreamed of. She imagined Anna floating next to her, humming their mother’s lullaby and reaching for her hand.
“Let’s keep going” Ava whispered, and the world fell silent.

(Poetry by Naveed Noordin)

In my free time, I just love to become a philosopher in my own zone and think and reflect on different things, such as life, good and evil, humanity, worldly conditions and suffering etc and anything that comes to my free wandering mind. Here’s a piece I wrote in one of those free time reflection moments on life. Hope you enjoy it!

What is life

• What is life, you ask me
It is a journey, I tell you

• It is a venue to learn, to grow and to spread your wings
and in the midst of it to make mistakes yet to persist

• It is a medium to seek, to learn and to impart knowledge and wisdom
and to use it to ponder upon God’s Universe

• It is an avenue to mingle, to form bonds and to serve
and to stand beside each other and to learn to live in harmony

• It is an occasion to celebrate oneself as well as others
and to learn to appreciate and to offer gratitude

• It is not as straight as the edge of a ruler but rather full of calamities
but it is often these trials that help us grow and nurture

• Alas, what is life, you ask me again
again I tell you, it is a journey
not easy, but definitely a worthwhile one

(Written by Ashleigh Shay)

When I first wrote On The Sidelines I was nervous. Bryan contacted me more or less a day after I published my first post on my blog.

That was the first time I was posting personal writing on a public platform. Then he asked me to do the same on his website. And this time it was a story about me, not just things that were going on around me.

Once I sat down to write the words flowed out of me so fast I knew I must have been all over the place. Although after I read it over it made as much sense on the screen as it did in my head.

That was a gratifying and terrifying thought.

It meant I was competent and people we’re actually going to read a story about me. That made me vulnerable, something I don’t like being. But I mustered up all the courage that I could and I hit “submit.”

I linked the story to my blog and from then it was like. Looking back at some statistics, 17 people read the story on my blog. However I’m unsure how many people read it on The Wish Dish. Either way, it made me feel confident about my writing.

I hope that freshmen in college or even just those who want to work in the world of sports have benefitted from my post. I was a regular freshman whose goal was to get on the field of the game. Luck came my way and here I am two years later and I have had field access for every home game.

I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason and you have to work for what you want. I was at the right place at the right time to get me started. But I have worked my butt off since then to make a statement.

My job is early mornings, long days and late hours. I love every since second of it. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have made it past the second football game last season.

You know those 12 o’clock kick-offs? While the rest of you are getting up at 8 am I’m already at the football stadium. It’s not an easy life but it’s one that I’ve chosen. I hope what I wrote last spring has inspired others to do the same.

It doesn’t have to do with sports and it doesn’t have to be in college. It can be anything and anytime. The purpose of me sharing my story was to accomplish two things.

The first one was to put myself out there. To be come comfortable with others reading something very personal. It was like publishing part of myself.

The second thing was to show people that if you are determined, you want something, and work hard for it, that you will get it. I had no idea how I was going to obtain what I wanted in the beginning. But I gave up weekends and nights out in order to get it. I love what I do. I hope others will one day too.