“It was that muggy summer noon that I remember moving for the first time in my life,” Silver key winner Hayley Wigington nostalgically starts her hazy journey through memories of a scorching Texas summer and first move in her winning memoir.

Hayley Wigington is one of several students at Hopkinton High School to win a Scholastic Art and Writing Award, and from her submission it would seem that the award might have much personal significance seeing as it contains meaningful life experience, but she disagrees.

“Five year old me within the piece was probably too busy running around in busy streets with no concept of death and pissing myself to think about the deeper meaning of life and my personal values.”

Meg Bradbury, winner of gold and silver keys, has a similar view on the meaning of the award to her.

“The judges are the only ones controlling whether or not you win and it is solely based on their opinion which I don’t really care about but evidently they liked my piece this year so I got a pin in the mail which was dandy.”

And while these awards might not have such a profound meaning to the students, Bradbury did go on to say how being recognized was encouraging, making a point that “Like I previously mentioned, I liked getting the spiffy pin in the mail.”

Wigington had a different sentiment.

“Award or not, smearing my emotional excrement onto a piece of paper and having that creative freedom that comes with writing or drawing is something that I just really enjoy in itself.” Which might encourage our older more wisened readers to have a little more faith that the creative spirit is enduring in the younger generations. Additionally a nod to older generations, she went on to say “Thank you Ron Paul for birthing me and giving me new life.”

These awards if nothing else mean the younger generation of artists is continuing to innovate and create and express themselves and get recognized in whatever capacity for doing this. As a society fostering creative growth is very important for a thriving culture and these young artists are just the beginning. As Bradbury so passionately affirmed, “lobsters out there, keep doing you.”