Write about how a person’s perspective on an event from their childhood shifted in their adulthood.

Posted in Adults on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 31 stories

“it hits the same way” by Mal Evie

Submitted to Contest #11

You know how it feels when you're a kid and then you're given the toy you always wanted? Or your favorite ice cream flavor when you did good? There's always this feeling of immense joy and excitement when you unwrap it- hastily or carefully. There's also this thought that you don't deserve it or you don't need it but accepts it anyways. Evie remember when she used to unwrap presents from her adoptive parents, always being thankful that she's been saved from the wretched place she used to call home. Being a kid and having a ...

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“What Goes Around” by Ann Hunwicks

Submitted to Contest #11

What Comes Around Jake stood in the middle of the aisle, hanging onto the handle of the stroller. The empty stroller. A few minutes ago, it held two and a half year old Trevor. He scanned the floor of the department store. Any direction he looked, he saw clothes hanging from circular racks. Dresses, blouses, slacks and sweaters were grouped according to sizes stencilled on large tags mounted above the circular tubes. Women browsed, admired and touched the displays. Approaching noon, the large department store bustled with shop...

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“Dream of a Soldier” by Kylie Mullins

Submitted to Contest #11

Scars. A terrifying word to some, to others a trophy, tattooed onto their skin as a sign of strength. That’s what I had thought. A young, foolish woman she was, slinging a bundle of clothes over her ridged shoulders as the pride of stepping away from her childhood home sparked a defiant grin within her heart of stone. I rocked back in the antique chair, groaning with the little pressure it had to hold up. The silence hung heftily over the eerie creak of a wall somewhere in the vast hallways. My rocker moaned again. &nb...

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“The Distance ” by Retha Knight

Submitted to Contest #11

It was the ending of a typical day of battling mixed number fractions and the social horrors of the junior high lunchroom. As I got off the bus in front of my house, the sun blinded me and distracted me from the abnormality of Mrs. Christian not being in her front yard and waving as I walked up my driveway. That oddity was out weighed by the fact that I had to maneuver between my mother’s and father’s cars that were normally not there when I got home. I heard their strained voices, my father’s mostly, as I walked closer to the house. “How,” ...

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“The Memory” by Penelope Swenor

Submitted to Contest #11

My father was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, so I’ve been reading articles about memory loss. Losing your memory seems to be a fearful thing. I read that a person’s memory of a past incident will remain strong if they experienced emotion at the time of the incident. When I consider a very clear memory I have of an incident that happened 40-odd years ago, I am unsure what emotions I experienced at the time. I was six years’ old. The incident, or perhaps I should call it the accident, was probably most emotional for my moth...

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“Significantly Insignificant” by D.K. Fair

Submitted to Contest #11

Gemma and her dad had never been close. Before she reached her teens, her parents divorced, and he was all but out of her life completely. Distant memories remained in her mind about him. She remembered his giant stereo set and R&B albums that no one was allowed to touch. There was one time that he threw a block party and he charged the guests $1 to use the bathrooms. Her fondest memory was the year that the Chicago Bears triumphantly won the Super Bowl. The entire family learned the lyrics to ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle.' Other memor...

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“Learning to Deliver an Award Winning Speech ” by Terry Huntingdon Tyd

Submitted to Contest #11

One day in late May, 1953, several of my friends and I disappeared into the bathroom after the last bell rang. I borrowed a tube of lipstick from one of them and we plastered bright red across our lips, some of the less experienced among us running a bit outside the lip-line — including me of course, looking a lot more like Cruella de Ville than Terry Lynn Huntingdon. Then, attempting to escape down the hall and make a b-line for the two block walk into town to share our favored banana splits — slices of ripe bananas on the sides, one scoo...

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“The Little Girl In the Grownup Me” by Angel Miller

Submitted to Contest #11

"It will get better." I hear the preacher say that, as I ride down the street listening to the YouTube video through the car stereo system. I wonder if life will really get better. As a child, I remember always hearing people say that and then seeing those same people were always the ones caught in a struggle. I wondered if that was said just to make them feel better about themselves or if they truly believed it. And if they truly believed it, then where was the proof in their lives. As a young girl, I was met with many obstacles. Many...

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“Susan's Perspective Change” by Kayla Kaye

Submitted to Contest #11

Susan had always gone to the Missouri State Fair as a child. She had not been to the State Fair in about 5 years, due to her going to college. She had just graduated, and she decided to go with her parents and a few childhood friends of hers. She expected it to be as fun as she remembered it, with some modifications that come along with her age. When she got there, she always remembered getting cotton candy and eating it all. So, she decided to try and recreate her childhood memories with her friends. She seen the line and waited for a littl...

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“Growing Pains” by Kelle AJ

Submitted to Contest #11

Daddy made Mommy cry all the time.Mommy sometimes tried to make it stop.Then Daddy made Mommy cry more. You learn once you’re older that people who love each other aren’t supposed to hurt each other. You learn that when your father hits your mother, it’s abuse. You learn that when your first girlfriend hits you, it isn’t love. You learn that sorry doesn’t mean sorry. You learn that gifts are blindfolds for bruises. Things broke a lot around the house. At first, Mommy cleaned up the glass.Then Mommy walked over it with bare feet.When my mothe...

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“Forgotten Playthings” by Dave Renton

Submitted to Contest #11

When he was a child, Devon had lots of toys. He would get new ones all the time, even when it wasn’t a birthday or Christmas. The toys he already had would end up on the floor or kicked under his bed, whenever a new one came along. Eventually his parents would make him clean his room and the toys would get tossed in a garbage bag. His Dad would drag them down to the basement where they sat, piled up next to the other bags of forgotten toys. Once, every year or two, a large garbage bin would get dropped off in the bac...

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“Now It Was” by Sophie Quinn

Submitted to Contest #11

It was twenty-one miles between the station and the house, so I had to forewarn them. I had attempted the journey once with a delightful ignorance, however my Smart Phone could now explained a lot as to why that heedless quest had been so testing. I also hadn’t made things any easier for myself by wearing flip flops, in October, during a rainstorm. I couldn’t blame only my choice of footwear, most of my time and energy was consumed by the rucksack I made from old sherbet coloured pillowcases, amateurly bound together with hemp thread. After ...

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“Heart Failure” by Mel Lewis

Submitted to Contest #11

The dog is lying on his side, his nostrils whistling as he struggles to get more air. We knew it was only a matter of time before his heart gave out. But it's too soon. He isn't even seven.That's how old I was when I learned that hearts can fail. The knowledge terrified me, as did the sight of my grandmother lying on the floor, a massive figure ghost-like in her nightdress and hairnet, a cake tin by her side in case she had to throw up."She has angina," said the grownups. For a while I believed it was a friend who came to stay. "Grandm...

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“Always Room for Jell-O?” by Michael Williams

Submitted to Contest #11

"Hadn’t you better get working on those peas?” Mildred advised her son, Michael. “No television tonight unless you’re a member of the ‘Clean Plate Club’. Look at how well your sister is doing. Her peas are gone!” Michael knew that his younger sister had tricks up her sleeve, and a few peas in her pocket, as well. Kathy had become an early master of the art. Why, she might grow up to be a magician! As big as they are, Kathy could make sliced carrots go away w...

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“Ticklish Spots” by William Catkins

Submitted to Contest #11

When I was a small child, I spent two weeks during each summer vacation staying with my grandparents in Iowa. On Saturdays, I got to ride along with my grandfather in his ‘63 Chevy Impala as he went on errands. The car’s brilliant, sapphire-blue upholstery was a sharp contrast to its simple white exterior. Running errands with my grandfather all to myself in his Impala was always a special treat. Grandpa was half Blackfoot Indian and half French Canadian whose square-set jaw and high cheekbones gave his blue eyes a resolute quality. He ...

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Write about how a person’s perspective on an event from their childhood shifted in their adulthood.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 31 stories

“it hits the same way” by Mal Evie

“What Goes Around” by Ann Hunwicks

“Dream of a Soldier” by Kylie Mullins

“The Distance ” by Retha Knight

“The Memory” by Penelope Swenor

“Significantly Insignificant” by D.K. Fair

“Learning to Deliver an Award Winning Speech ” by Terry Huntingdon Tyd

“The Little Girl In the Grownup Me” by Angel Miller

“Susan's Perspective Change” by Kayla Kaye

“Growing Pains” by Kelle AJ

“Forgotten Playthings” by Dave Renton

“Now It Was” by Sophie Quinn

“Heart Failure” by Mel Lewis

“Always Room for Jell-O?” by Michael Williams

“Ticklish Spots” by William Catkins

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone who returns as an adult to a place they last visited as a child.

Write about an adult event or gathering from the point of view of a child.

Write about a parent who sees pieces of a family member’s (or their own) personality in their child — whether that brings them comfort, terror, or something in between.

Write about the moment a child (of any age) first comes to view a parent as a three-dimensional human being, and not just a parental figure.

Contest #11

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

172

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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