Write a story in which a jaded academic makes an unexpected, rash decision.

Posted in Angst on Nov 3, 2023

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✍️ 41 stories

“ Speaking of Time” by Keith Menendez

Submitted to Contest #223

Mario ran through the blizzard snow, which was accumulating outside an Columbia University academic building. He saw the blue Nissan sedan with its hazard lights flashing, which Emmy told him about minutes before. He almost fell on some ice before he reached the door. He opened the back door and tumbled into the seat. EC gave him a heart-warming smile. She wore a green toboggan and her full-length silver puffy coat. He closed the door. “Hi!” EC said. “Hi. Thanks for picking me up. Right on...

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“Changing Lanes” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #223

It was whilst driving that Professor Giles Latham made the momentous decision. This rash and outlandish decision had been brewing for some time now. In the airing cupboard, far too close to the immersion heater it sat bubbling away. The proportions of the ingredients thrown into the ponderously burgeoning container were perilously incorrect and so an explosion was inevitable. It was anyone’s guess as to when the explosion would take place, but the magnitude would be attention seeking, that was for sure. Also for sure was the mess it would ma...

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“The Earworm” by Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #223

“My angriness from sixth grade will scar my memory for life and I will be ashamed of my sixth grade year forever.” -The Night Stalker THE EARWORM Benjamin could never discover what it was exactly that made him cease to be an ordinary student. He knew that he was one once, as he and his classmates emerged from the long dark time of uncertainty that preceded his revelations. There wasn’t a single precocious learner am...

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“The Right Decision for a Student Who Would Fail” by Judy Tigay

Submitted to Contest #223

Winter was coming early. It was the first week in December and there was a chill in the air, and a dampness, too. Not a leaf was left on any tree, except of course, the conifers, and there was a scant, bare, skeletal look about the branches. And there was no sun. Dark, damp, gloomy, even in early afternoon, was the feeling felt by Professor Turnbull on that bleak Decempber day. Typical of winter in Whitehall, Minnesota, in late December, but not right after Thanksgiving. He was in a hurry as his class was starting in fifteen minutes....

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“Ouroboros” by Daniel Kleba

Submitted to Contest #223

The problem with planning your future is that eventually, it becomes the present. And you have to be prepared to live in that present when it comes. Walter was wallowing in that present, presently. Mountains of papers spread out before him in a wave of mediocrity. This year's students were particularly mundane. Months of terrible reports had ground his once meticulous grading system into a rudimentary three-step process. Step one was checking for name accuracy. He had wasted hours on poorly written slogs of academic heresy from papers with s...

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“The Modern Pandora” by Julia Hanson

Submitted to Contest #223

Dear Maggie, I know it has been years since I’ve been in touch. The last few years have been filled with triumph, but more often tragedy. I need to tell someone and, despite the time passed, you are my closest friend and I can think of no better confessor. What I have to tell you is strange beyond your present imagining. I ask only that you read to the end. As you know, after graduation I took a faculty position at Waterford University. The first six months were a whirlwind, all my attention and energy were focused on learning a new depa...

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“Jacob's Message” by Bob Long Jr

Submitted to Contest #223

David loved watching old episodes of the 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island with his dad. Ginger was beautiful but Mary Ann, well, he wanted to marry her! She was so pretty, so sweet and kind. Who would have thought one of those characters would have served as a role model for what he wanted to be when he grew up. Not a ship mate or a ship captain, not a movie star or even a millionaire. No, he wanted to be a Professor. The professor was admired, smart, handsome, well dressed, and always seemed to be doing some kind of research. He gav...

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“Porters Past” by Shannon Zornow

Submitted to Contest #223

I walked slowly to class, tired from grading papers late last night. I checked my watch, there was 10 minutes left until my 8:30pm class. It didn’t matter because they’d all be late anyways. I felt empty walking through the halls, as if I was watching from deep inside my body, as my legs moved of their own accord. I didn’t even stop when I got to where I taught. Opening the door easily, I rarely locked it. Not many kids took my class anyways. Stepping in to look at the empty room. I took a deep breath, and it felt like my hop...

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“THE MIGHTY HOPES THAT MAKE US MEN” by Jolanta Polk

Submitted to Contest #223

I enter the rehearsal room, sensing something meaningful will happen to me today, and immediately spot her vixen face, green eyes, and corn-colored hair. She has a unique look about her. Maybe it's the way she nibbles on her bottom lip when she smiles. She is new to the band and must have joined while I was in Nicaragua last month. For the first time in eighteen years... When I see her surname on the list, my heart skips a beat. Sophie Candelle… Rioting emotions obstruct the passage of words in my throat. I brace myself and continu...

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“The Pawn” by Jahson Clarke

Submitted to Contest #223

I guess every dog has its day held some merit. After all, my life did a 180 and gave me the thrill I’ve been yearning for since the sandbox. The college experience was a puzzle, everyone had their own piece in making the experience. I hated the jagged one I got. A studious student who was carrying group projects,getting used by girls for homework answers; but was god awful socially.The few friends I had were from the chess club, a group of outsiders with the goal of being more than pawns in life. I fit right in. Thomas was the...

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“Dr. Chad Finds a Kid Bleeding in the Ivy” by Paul Crehan

Submitted to Contest #223

Dr. Chad Finds a Kid Bleeding in the Ivyby Paul Crehan***PLEASE NOTE: This story contains references to and imagery of sexual assault and carnage.The Chancellor told the two-hundred gathered in the banquet hall that Dr. Chad had arrived in Paris with nothing but the clothes on his back. This wasn’t hyperbole, the Chancellor told them. This was fact. Dr. Chad had arrived without shoes. A greedy river bottom had pulled them from his feet thirty miles from the city. So, he had arrived barefoot, and with nothing but the clothes on his back.Greed...

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“Co-Ed Uniform” by Audrey Knox

Submitted to Contest #223

My heavy eyelids drooped as I tried unsuccessfully to beat back the pounding of my head that rang incongruously against the caffeine buzz from pounding at least three Red Bulls during last night’s all nighter. No one said college was going to be easy, but exam week was kicking my ass. I had tried to find the center of the venn diagram that was “easy” versus “lucrative” and settled on a Marketing BA. But I had neglected to mentally prepare for the horrors that were the general education classes. I just wanted to get through this final exam an...

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“The Boy on the Bridge” by Sophie Parmaby

Submitted to Contest #223

It was a common rumor that ghosts roamed the halls at Branson University. Especially in the library, every once in a while, a cold chill would rattle the bones of students before promptly slipping away. Most were skeptical of this claim, including me. I don’t make it a habit to believe rumors. Rumors are a waste of time and time is something I definitely don’t have with finals right around the corner. It was imperative that I score well. I didn’t want to experience the last time my father felt my rank was unacceptable. The welts hadn’t disap...

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“Kindred Minds” by L.B Rinker

Submitted to Contest #223

Kindred minds tend to slow down time, and make the hours pass like days… but what if I want the day to end? What if his recurrent parroting of my own pessimistic views was entrenching my consciousness in darkness… would I ever see the light again? Could I ever recognize a love that wasn’t his? Or would we be trapped together… in a deep black mine the depths of which would become inescapable….One day, years from now, when we’d say our vows, would the words be empty? And would there be anyone there to hear them, or would we have turned our bac...

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“Acquired Daughter” by Mike Males

Submitted to Contest #223

[Warning: contains crude language and direct references to substance abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, and violence but no graphic descriptions.] He wasn’t ready for this. His afternoon in the empty, high swings in Eagle Rock Park agendaed bad-wine brooding to facilitate contemplation of whether to finish his shitpile dissertation, “California Youth in Transition,” jump off the Arroyo bridge, or do the first and then the second. Problem was, he wasn’t drunk enough to blot out that splatting sixty feet onto the rough-concrete Arroyo Seco chann...

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Write a story in which a jaded academic makes an unexpected, rash decision.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 41 stories

“ Speaking of Time” by Keith Menendez

“Changing Lanes” by Jed Cope

“The Earworm” by Len Rely

“The Right Decision for a Student Who Would Fail” by Judy Tigay

“Ouroboros” by Daniel Kleba

“The Modern Pandora” by Julia Hanson

“Jacob's Message” by Bob Long Jr

“Porters Past” by Shannon Zornow

“THE MIGHTY HOPES THAT MAKE US MEN” by Jolanta Polk

“The Pawn” by Jahson Clarke

“Dr. Chad Finds a Kid Bleeding in the Ivy” by Paul Crehan

“Co-Ed Uniform” by Audrey Knox

“The Boy on the Bridge” by Sophie Parmaby

“Kindred Minds” by L.B Rinker

“Acquired Daughter” by Mike Males

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a student discovering a hidden room in a university library.

Write about two rival academics pursuing the same grant.

Write about a student reporter uncovering a university scandal.

Set your story during exam season, when tensions run high and a minor incident sends your protagonist into a panic spiral.

Contest #223

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

184

Contest entries

84

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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