Contraband
Title: Contraband
Creator: Kate Minzner
Category: Time
Creator Commentary:
This is a short story describing a rather small revolution that happened while I was in high school. Essentially, the school administration had placed rules upon our class that we students deemed to be unfair, and thus we began to find our own inventive ways to get around these rules. Our rebellion was ultimately successful, but as you will see in the story, disobeying the authority figures also had repercussions. Though the topic of our dissent was trivial (cell phone policy), our response had all the makings of a classic revolution: secrecy when hiding from authority figures, willingness to speak out against unfair practices, and a unification of the people. I think it is important to remember that though our revolution was small, even the largest uprisings start as a few insignificant voices. I am submitting this story to the “Time” category because of the impact this story has had on me and my high school class as a whole, over a year after its occurrence. The interaction of time and revolution is all about how revolutions impact the progression of history and shape the future of society. This particular rebellion did indeed shape the future of our high school; we passed on the tradition of hiding contraband items in the ceiling tiles to the graduating class behind us, and we convinced the administration to stop performing invasive checks of our personal items. The tale of the cell phone rebellion has become one of my most treasured high school memories and reminds me that standing up for your own rights, no matter how small an issue, really can change time for the better.
Submission:
Creator Bio:
Kate Minzner is a freshman in Television Writing and Production at Chapman University. She grew up in Northern Kentucky and writes narrative essays about her life there and her experiences in high school. When she isn’t writing or working on schoolwork, Kate can be found running half marathons, doodling mediocre cartoons, and looking at pictures of dogs on Instagram.