Creative Harvest

With a dot of her pencil on the black notebook's page of golden lines, Alex added the final piece of punctuation for her last story. She had filled the luxury notebook with various stories over the years, and it would soon be time for her to face her fears of rejection and pursue her dream of publishing a book of short stories. But for now, as her room was being filled with feral young creatures with a desperate need for the instruction they so despised, she closed the notebook and placed its ribbon back its default place. Class was about to begin.

Alex spent the next several hours as she always spent her weekdays: by pouring herself into the noble aspiration of inspiring young minds to write. She would often start by assigning one of the classics to read, then she would explore the themes and literary significance of each major work, and eventually work towards requiring the students to write something original in the style of the author they had been studying.

Once the school day was over with her black notebook in tow, she left the school to start her journey home. A whole new set of emotions was beginning to set in. What if after all the work I've done, no one will have it? The very thought caused knots in her stomach and an increase in her pulse. Alex knew that today was a day for a more light hearted playlist, one that she knew would make her smile. As she made her way home, she even laughed out loud when the opening track of Avenue Q was playing.

The next morning in her classroom felt so different. She had been in the habit of getting there early in order to write, and now her notebook was gone. She had chosen a publisher to submit her work to; she had sent the notebook to them by registered mail and a copy of each story to the copyright office in the library of Congress. Before she knew it, she had a pencil in her hand, almost involuntarily and she was compulsively tapping on her desk. It was definitely time for a new notebook.

The next several weeks seemed to crawl by as if time had supernaturally slowed down. Alex anxiously awaited for news from the publishing company, and as for work, she often wondered if she was making a difference at all. The students talked during class, struggled with their assignments, and looked at her with blank stares as if she was speaking a foreign language. If it wasn't for her love of literature, she would've been regretting her life choices. It was only October and the educator's year had just begun.

But then one day everything changed. She had finally reached one of them. A female student approached her after class to request help with a story she was writing. A story that she was writing on her own and not for a school assignment. So Alex told Sara to meet her in class after school.

The next few hours dragged on for what felt like days. Alex was so excited to be able to nurture Sara's love for writing. A weight of perceived failure had been lifted off of her chest now that she knew that she was at least reaching one of them. When the school day was over, Sara eagerly entered the classroom and sat down with her new found mentor to discuss her newest work, Lines of Gold.

After reading the first few paragraphs of Lines of Gold, Alex burst into tears of uncontainable joy. It was a work of fiction, but it was loosely based upon an educator's love of literature and her faithful, disciplined passion of writing that she daily recorded in a small black notebook. Alex had never dreamed in a thousand years that she had ever made a difference in one of the student's lives, let alone that one had noticed her penchant for writing during her downtime.

If Sara had been a student on the brink of failure, Alex might have thought this to be a simple effort to suck up and raise her grade a letter. But she was already an "A" student and the heartfelt descriptions of the protaganist's thoughts in Sara's story were too deep to be manufactured. Reading Sara's story was a manifestation of Alex's true dream, a dream that her heart secretly longed for even more than the publication of her story collection: to mentor a student and pass on her love of writing.

As the weeks and months continued to pass, Sara continued to meet with Alex after school for two afternoons a week. Lines of Gold was edited, various tweaks were added, and new stories were born from both authors. Alex had picked up a new notebook after her first meeting with Sara, and she purchased a second one. She wrote a short letter on the first page for Sara containing sincere praise of Sara's strengths with an exhortation to follow her dreams, believe in herself, and to never ever give up or lose hope.

The school year had ended and summer had arrived. The extra time was useful and productive for her writing but for the first time, Alex wished the summer to pass quickly so that the new year would begin. The thought of her first notebook was almost a faint memory on the fateful morning in late July when the letter finally arrived.

Her notebook was to be published as a stand alone book of short stories! Reading the news contained in the letter was such a surreal experience for Alex as this honor was one she had secretly hoped for, but never dared to believe it could be. She signed the contract and made the long journey to deliver it in person and receive the twenty thousand dollars it promised. She wondered what she would use it for, but quickly came to a resolution.

As Alexandria Casille closed her notebook and prepared for the imminant arrival of the next pack of feral young creatures, she went to the storage cabinet of her classroom to seek out the copies of the first classic novel always assigned. However, in order to access them, it was first necessary to move one of several large boxes that was filled with small black luxury notebooks that she would eventually gift to the students each October every year until she retired. After all, she now knew that she could get through to some of them and the time for the harvest was near.

For as you sow, so shall you reap

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-Vince :)