About the Young Writers Project
YWP, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, Vermont, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power and to gain confidence and skills for the workplace and life. YWP publishes about 1,000 students’ work each year here, in newspapers across Vermont, on Vermont Public Radio and in YWP’s monthly digital magazine, The Voice. Since 2006, it has offered young people a place to write, explore and connect online at youngwritersproject.org, which has only one rule: Be respectful. For more information, please contact YWP executive director Geoffrey Gevalt at ggevalt@youngwritersproject.org.
Ben Maksym, a 17-year-old senior at The Vermont Commons School in South Burlington, writes about simple moments that create joy, from enjoying a day with no obligations to making someone smile. Ben lives with his family in Grand Isle. The photo of Ben, below, was taken during a writing workshop at the Young Writers Project Celebration of Writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Nov. 7, 2015.
Joy
By Ben Maksym
[W]aking up on a tired day
and lying. Not moving, just sitting.
To have no duties, no arduous ordeals
to deal with. That is joy.
Making a joke, seeing others
smile, not just to be nice, or to indulge,
but because they’re actually amused.
You smile, too. That is joy.
Stroking a dog or cat or
animal of any size, shape, type,
that loves you. Not having them
run, tense, fear. That is joy.
To hear “I love you” of your
own effort, work, and patience;
to respond in kind. That is joy.
Dancing, singing, loving,
with your own child.
Seeing their sunlight smile. That is joy.