[Y]oung Writers Project, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power, and to gain confidence and skills for school, the workplace and life.
Check out the most recent issue of The Voice, Young Writers Project’s monthly digital magazine. Click here.
Each week, VTDigger features a writing submission – an essay, poem, fiction or nonfiction – accompanied by a photo or illustration from Young Writers Project. YWP publishes about 1,000 students’ work each year here, in newspapers across Vermont, on Vermont Public Radio and in YWP’s monthly digital magazine, The Voice. Since 2006, it has offered young people a place to write, share their photos, art, audio and video, and to explore and connect online at youngwritersproject.org. For more information, please contact Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org.
Photo of the week by Grace Kafferlin, 15, of Wiliston/YWP Media Library

2020 has been a year rife with unprecedented challenges, needless to say – but as they say, too, “there’s nowhere to go but up” now. Monkton writer Whitney Dykstra, featured this week, does not downplay the obstacles of our new reality, but doesn’t give up hope for a better future either. Sometimes a list of wishes to Father Christmas differs very little from a list of New Year’s resolutions for the world to chip away at. 

Letter to Santa

Whitney Dykstra, 13, Monkton

Dear Santa,

     I’m writing to you today in a moment of childish aspiration. My Christmas wishes this year are primarily impossible for you to grant. However, I’ve decided to take a chance and tell you anyway. 

     Now I’ve heard some compelling stories of magic so strong that reindeer can fly way up high in the sky. Tales of a man named Kris Kringle, who travels around the entire world in one night on a sleigh filled with toys for good girls and good boys, also run playfully through my mind. I’ve learned through the years that you’re always watching me and you know if I’m naughty or nice. 

     I’ve got to say that this year I’ve been very nice. With magic that powerful, I want to at least share with you what I want for Christmas. Maybe a Christmas miracle will find its way into my life…

     My Christmas list:

     1. I want for hate to dissipate and love to thrive.

     2. I want everyone everywhere to have a plentiful meal on their table, at least for the holidays.

     3. I want the sick to heal so they may spend valuable time with their families during this holiday   

  season.

     4. I want there to be warm clothes on the backs of the entire human race, no exceptions.

     5. I want our environment’s health and proper beauty to be restored.

     6. I want politics to become more civil and less cutthroat, so that our country may reunite.

     7. I want those serving their countries to spend the holidays at home with loved ones.

     8. I want equitable opportunities given out to all.

     9. I want her to heal, come back home, and continue to be the same best friend I’ve known for many 

  years (you know who I’m talking about).

     10. While I’m making unobtainable wishes, here’s one that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time: I wish for the ability to hug my friends without fear of repercussions. I want to not have to worry  about wearing a mask or social distancing. I want the pandemic to be over. Curtains for COVID.

     This list could go on forever, but I’ve run out of steam. For I know that this letter will never make it into your magical hands. My words will simply fall on deaf ears. It was nice to pretend. Now I shall tune back in to reality.

  Lots of love and ridiculous wishes,

                                                                                                                                      Whitney

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