Warren among winners of writing contest

Sophomore Will Warren was named Darlington's winner of the Rome News-Tribune's annual One Book Many Voices writing contest. This year, 178 students submitted entries about Jay Asher’s “Thirteen Reasons Why.”

Winners were selected from each area high school and in the middle school and college categories. All winners will get to meet the author at a private reception before his talk Sept. 23 at Georgia Highlands College and will receive a signed copy of his book.

Read the full text of Warren's essay below:

This book was the clichéd “think-about-what-you-say-or-you-might-regret-it” book. As a high-schooler, I am told to read these sorts of books because high-schoolers don’t think about what they say. I think it’s a good thing, however stereotypical it may be, to be reminded of how words and actions can penetrate the emotionally fragile facades of high school kids, and in the case of this book, girls.

The first story on the first cassette tape caught my attention and at the same time caught Clay Jensen’s interest as well. He was listening to the story of the first kiss of his lover-from-afar, Hannah Baker. It caught his attention for obvious reasons, but it caught mine because it made me think of all the first kisses I’ve taken from various girls. I read Hannah’s testimony about Justin and of course knew that it wouldn’t have a happy ending. But what would happen, how would the story end? Now I know that it was a personal fault for Justin to spread false rumors and begin the downfall of an innocent young woman, but it reminded me that those first kisses are special to those girls. If I do something to ruin their memory of that special moment, it could snowball into a catastrophe of which I would have no control. Spreading a rumor to make oneself look cooler or better is ridiculous because lies will always come back to bite you when you least expect it.

The second cassette tape story that caught my eye was the story of a kid named Zach taking Hannah’s notes that people would give her in her paper bag. Such a small act of wickedness sucked the last bit of hope for happiness that Hannah had. Having those notes may have reminded her that she was OK, but no. Zach took that away from her so instead of the notes being her way out of depression, it only worsened it. This example from Hannah’s tapes showed me that small, seemingly insignificant actions could push a person off the precipice from which he or she stood.

When looking back on all the parts of Hannah’s collapse, I realized that if the people in the stories had done one thing differently, right instead of wrong, Hannah Baker would have still been alive. I think this is what the book really boils down to; doing the right thing and knowing that every time you make the right decision, you are preventing something bad from happening. In the book, this moral is shown through kids making the wrong decisions. It also shows that if one thing had been different, a life could have been changed, made better, or even saved.