Congratulations to Hope Moore for Winning the July 2024 Barefoot Writing Challenge! (Your $100 prize is on its way!)
The challenge was to write an essay that answered this prompt:
Who was the first person you told about your decision to pursue paid writing, and what was their reaction?
Hope shared the moving story about the support she gained from one very important person. Enjoy her winning submission:
Writing With Ronnie
“So, you want to be a writer, huh…”
Those words caused my 9-year-old self to stand on my tippy toes and challenge my older brother Ronnie. To my surprise, he had a challenge of his own. Ronnie, a 16-year-old amateur poet, rapper, and artist, knew that I looked up to him for everything. I wanted to become a writer too. Nodding with acceptance and excitement, he sent me away with a task. He challenged me to write my first poem about Mom’s homemade cooking.
I couldn’t maintain my composure when I completed my assignment. Shaky knees, sweaty palms, and all, I handed my pizza-stained paper over to Ronnie. As he read, he looked down at me with a smile and said, “Keep writing, little sis. You’ve got this.” At that moment, a dream of becoming a paid writer was born.
As I grew, my passion for writing did too. Mom bought me my first journal at age 13 after witnessing piles of paper on my bed at night that became my security blanket. As a teenager, I locked myself in my bedroom, transformed into my gothic, misfit persona (I loved her, she rocked!), and poured out my dark soul through writing about a recent breakup. Deep in the pit of my stomach I knew that I wanted to explore the many paths of becoming a writer. Without question, I turned to Ronnie for support.
With a grueling but exciting discussion on writing, he opened my eyes to where writing could take me. I discovered that I didn’t want to be only a poet. I wanted to be a poet, author, magazine article writer, and everything in between. I wanted to do it all. Ronnie was ecstatic about my newfound passion and told me, “Keep writing, little sis. You’ve got this.” He wanted me to explore, discover, make mistakes, and grow. And so, I did…
As I grew, my once-loved passion for writing suddenly came to a halt. That was the day that I discovered my biggest supporter and best friend had passed away at the early age of 37 in 2020. Since then, I have struggled to find meaning, discovery, freedom, happiness, and fulfillment in writing. Ronnie was the best writer and artist I have known. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance to publish his poems and drawings, and he was working on his first book during the time of his passing. He taught me how to make my first cup of coffee, my first omelet, and my first cake, and was the first person I told that I wanted to be a paid writer.
Now that I’ve joined AWAI, the community breathes life back into my passion. With my pen in my hand and a broken heart on my sleeve, I hear Ronnie’s voice tell me, “Keep writing, little sis. You’ve got this.” And so, I will…
