8teensworld Barely ✯

Maya sighed, her eyes resting on her screen. She hadn't even started writing a story; she was trying to live one. She had spent the last three days working on a piece for a competition writetheworld.com that just didn’t feel right. She wanted to win, but her story felt, well, barely there.

Barely sleeping. Barely passing AP Physics. Barely keeping her thoughts from crashing into a mess of anxiety. She stared at the prompt: Insurmountable Obstacles . "Maya, library closes in ten," Mrs. Gable said softly. 8teensworld barely

She thought about the advice she’d read on a writing blog — If you’re stuck, stop trying to write a 'good' story. Write the story you need to hear. Maya sighed, her eyes resting on her screen

She wrote about sitting in this exact chair, about the fear that her future was barely in her own hands, that it was all scheduled, ranked, and judged. She wrote about wanting to be able to pause, to just breathe . She wanted to win, but her story felt, well, barely there