Ella Seymour (left) and Maeve Tholen (right), eighth-graders at Chewonki Elementary and Middle School in Wiscasset, were recognized by the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards. Photo courtesy of Chewonki Elementary and Middle School

WISCASSET — For Ella Seymour and Maeve Tholen, eighth-graders at Chewonki Elementary and Middle School in Wiscasset, writing is an escape and their way of telling the world exactly what they’re thinking. When they wrote two assignments for English class, they never expected to be recognized by the national Scholastic Art and Writing Awards out of the program’s over 320,000 submissions.

Chewonki Elementary and Middle School is a private school with just over 30 students grades 1-8.

Tholen, 13, wrote a short story titled “A Painted Seashell,” earning her a Gold Key Award for the program’s northeast region. She will automatically advance to the national level for adjudication on March 17.

In her writing, Tholen uses fictional character Alex to illustrate her relationship with her grandmother as well as her experience with losing family members to dementia.

“I’m better at writing poetry, but I thought it was interesting we had to base a character off ourselves,” said Tholen. “I based mine off myself and the relationship with my grandmother. Once I got going, it just flowed out of me. When something comes to me, I write it down.”

“I visit you every day, although you probably don’t know who I am, or why I’m here,” Tholen wrote. “But Abuela, even while I sit by your side in this uncomfortably pristine room, I can’t even find a glimmer of the person you used to be in your chocolate brown eyes.”

Tholen said she’s most inspired to write when she’s outside “sitting down on the ground and listening to all the birds and creatures around me.”

Inspired by the colors, smells and sounds of “the natural world,” Tholen wrote of how the healthcare facility her grandmother was brought to smelled of “bleach and lost hope,” a stark difference from her grandmother’s yellow kitchen that smelled of vanilla and cinnamon from homemade churros.

“You insisted on the brightest yellow paint color that the hardware store sold for your kitchen,” Tholen wrote. “You said it reminded you of the sun in Cuba, your home. You complained about the weak sunlight that shines through the fog on the Maine coast. You told me that one day you would take me home to Cuba and show me the true brightness of the sun, but you never did.”

Seymour,13, said she too finds inspiration when outside, and decided to take her readers to the beach in her memoir titled, “Yellow Joy,” which earned an Honorable Mention at the program’s regional level.

“When I write, I feel very relaxed, and almost like I’m in another world while I am putting words onto paper,” said Seymour. “I feel like my voice is really alive, and I can really articulate what I’m thinking. It makes me feel at peace with my thoughts.”

In her memoir, Seymour recounts 2020 as a year of inconveniences and disappointments that mounted over months to cloud her mind and muddy her perspective.

“All of them together have changed the way I think about things that happen all around me,” Seymour wrote. “Yet there were nearly always things to be happy about, even if I didn’t notice them right away.”

Seymour wrote of one cloudy, brisk day she spent at the beach with her aunt when a stranger caught her attention.

“I remember this one day we were at the beach and I just had this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach,” said Seymour. “As I looked around I saw a woman in a bright yellow bathing suit and a big smile on her face and it just brightened my day.”

“All I knew was that if I was in her shoes, I wouldn’t have been as happy as she seemed,” Seymour wrote. “After that, I slowly realized that my complaints and troubles were petty. Realizing that the way I react in any situation is up to me, and however I do react, is how I will remember that moment.”

Although the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t ended, Seymour said she has been working to shift her perspective to focus on the things in her life she’s most grateful for, including her family and friends.

Kat Cassidy, head of school and Tholen’s mother, said she developed the students’ writing assignments to help them reflect on how their lives have changed due to the COVID-19.

“I wanted to help them work through their feelings about the pandemic,” said Cassidy. “If students are feeling frustrated or angry, then writing is a perfect way to get those feelings out. There have been times when I can tell they’re exhausted. They push and work so hard, so I want them to understand they can pause and take a break because they’re dealing with a lot of heavy stuff.”