Creative Writers’ Christmas reflections

On Friday 9 December our Creative Writing scholars shared their reflections on Advent and Christmas in assembly.

As explained by Head of English, Mr David Walker, Advent is the period of expectation, and waiting, as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth – but it has become the ‘Cinderella season’, pushed aside in the rush to shop, party and prepare for Christmas. It is a special way of waiting; not with impatience or by ‘watching the clock’, but instead a waiting that nourishes and fills our hearts with peace. The true meaning of Advent is in the hope we share together in preparing to celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world.

Mr Walker posed the question: ‘have we forgotten how to wait?’. So this year the Creative Writing scholars, inspired by the idea of Advent, thought about what that word ‘waiting’ meant to them. The girls selected passages from other people’s writing – Sanjana N. read an extract from A Christmas Carol and Maddy A. read an extract from The Kite Runner – and also wrote their own reflections on this theme.  You can read the girls’ creative writing as follows:

Eiléanór C. (Year 10)

I'm leaning against the sunlight,
Letting it shine around me, illuminating me.
The scratched Perspex of the bus shelter is my wall
And I'm the wall flower pasted across it.
I've been here for fifteen minutes.
Then twenty.
Twenty five.
Thirty.
Still waiting, still eager.
Still nervously twirling a finger though one brown lock.
I glance to the time for comfort but even he can't take my mind away
I'll be here waiting
Until the sun tires of watching the end of the road with me
So then I'll be alone
In the darkness
But I’m still waiting.
Waiting for the light.

Olivia B. (Year 9)

You're certain that this is the hardest part: the sitting, the watching of the days slipping by, one-by one, at such a snail’s pace that you're convinced that time is going backwards. It feels as if you've been waiting half a lifetime for the letter, but it's only been a mere hour or so since the examination, from which you stumbled out, shoulders sagging with relief and instrument tucked under one arm, along with your sheet music. The sheet music that your eyes had passed across close to a million times - it's burned itself to the inside of your eyelids - and it's burned into the minds of your family who have had to listen to the pieces thousands of times. You're greeted with 'well done' and 'it's all over now' after the exam but all those words just bounce around the walls of your mind because they don't mean anything. Everything put together leads up to this moment: your dad with the letter in his hand, the expression on his face unreadable that makes you just that little bit more anxious. But as soon as he says “you passed your exam” you feel as if a tonne of bricks has been lifted from your shoulders. It really is over now, as is the waiting. And maybe it was worth the wait…

Mia R.B. (Year 9)

It's been a lifetime since I saw him last. A lifetime of waiting, or so it had felt. The war dragged him away. There was no escape, until now. It could be any day, any moment that he will return again. I set up the stockings and the crackling fire, anxiously awaiting the knock on the frosty wooden door. The clock on the mantelpiece teases me, slowly ticking away the minutes as waves of doubt wash over me. Surely he will come back? He can't be hurt, can he? I haven't heard if he is, and the war is over, he will come back. Tomorrow is Christmas Day. I long to finally spend Christmas with him, I long for all this to be over. As I arrange the baubles on the soft branches of the Christmas tree, I hear a knock. A shadow appears outside the door, a silhouette. My heart skips a beat. I think my waiting might be finally over!

Maddy A. (Year 8)

For most of us Christmas is a time of happiness and sharing as we wait to celebrate together. But what about those people for whom Christmas is a challenging time? Those who are alone, or frightened or facing hardship at this time of year? Advent is also an opportunity to think about those that are less fortunate than us – people who are waiting for Christmas in the same way we are, but with very different thoughts to ours. What about a refugee from the Syrian war, for example? What would their Christmas wait be like?

“Waiting. Waiting for food. Waiting for drink. Waiting for shelter. Waiting for Father Christmas to give me the one thing I want. Waiting for a new life and for hope.

Now it seems like we just walk, people taking no notice of us, almost like we're invisible. My bare feet are blistered, as the sharp stones underfoot rolled beneath me, my face covered in dirt. Waiting is all I ever do but God will guide me and send down hope when it is right. For me as a refugee, I know that God makes me wait because he sends down the hardest challenges to the strongest people and also because if I wait for longer then I will cherish the arrival more.”

Imogen H-H. (Year 7)

Advent

Anticipating the
Day that the
Virgin’s child is born
Excitement begins to grow as we
Near
The time

Christmas Day

Christmas time
Happiness all around
Rich and poor remember
International celebration
Sadness forgotten
Time of joy
Magic
All around
Stars sparkle reminding us of the
Day our saviour was born
All around joy from
Young to old.