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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Confident (07/05/07)
Silverware klinked against dishes and snippets of conversation melted into a glowing buzz as Lily turned away from the fountain drink dispenser of the college cafeteria. Tenuously, she balanced her plastic glass, finding the perfect place for it in the jumble the soup bowl, salad plate, and apple already created on her tray. Next, she turned her attention to the harder task of the mealtime, finding someone to sit with. On a campus of 1,000, she knew many people by sight, but not many people as lunch buddies. Sighing, she bemoaned this Friday and every other Friday since her dormmates, the usual crowd that her kept her company, skipped town early to go be with their families. Knowing that standing by the drink station lost in contemplative thought was not going to improve her social standing, she gave the cafeteria one more long searching sweep. No one familiar had materialized, so she made her way to one of the booths that lined the wall and determined that facing the windows overlooking the soccer field would draw the least attention to herself. On Fridays, the old excuse of reading a textbook for an “important” upcoming exam didn’t hold much water.
Lily cleaned her tray except for the apple while uncomfortably filtering through the buzz of several conversations around her. Finishing up as quickly as possible, she deposited her tray with the student workers who also had to stick around late into Friday afternoon and rushed off to her final class of the week.
At church on Sunday morning, the congregation joined hands and sang the chorus “We are One in the Bond of Love” as Lily quietly ran the alternative tag line, “When we are forced to join hands and sway together,” through her mind. After dropping hands, she settled in for the sermon. Love, the pastor intoned, was not always are big action, but it was proactive. He said it started in small gestures, virtually unnoticeable to anyone not involved in the exchange. As Lily alternatively scuffed the toe of her shoe along the bottom of the pew and admired the passion pink toe nail polish that was her own personal inauguration of spring, she wished that the entire freshman class could be present for the sermon. She had not been party to the exchange of many small gestures in the weeks that she had spent away from her family. Finally deciding that her pew scuffing might be distracting the older couple behind her, Lily tried to pull her attention back to sermon. She managed just in time to hear the pastor start in on his last point. Loosening his neck tie and grabbing the Bible from the pulpit, he sat on the top step of the platform like he always did when he wanted the congregation to pay close attention. “Love’s first step is often not even towards another person,” the pastor announced as he scanned the congregation. “Love’s first step is sometimes, maybe most of the time, one step outside of the lover’s comfort zone.” Lily felt the pastor’s eyes lock with hers, and she gazed back at him. After mumbling through a closing chorus and shaking the hands of the couple behind her, Lily left the sanctuary and returned to campus.
Friday rolled around again, and as Lily repeated her weekly ritual of balancing her tray and her emotions, she added a countdown of how many Fridays were left in the semester. Out of the blue, she thought of her comfort zone and stood for a moment recalling the sermon that had irritated her so much. Suddenly, she realized that though her classmates were not without guilt, she had created a well-fortified comfort zone of her own. With a sigh, she repeated her scan of the cafeteria and noticed someone from one of her classes in a booth along the wall with a textbook propped open in front of her. She shifted the tray once more and started toward the table. As she ask for permission to share the table, she casually noticed that her classmate’s book was flipped open to an unassigned chapter, and she thanked God that she didn’t really care about the score of the soccer game anyway.
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This article has been read 798 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Dee Yoder
07/14/07
This is a good story and very enjoyable! Adding some spaces would help it be visually easier to read, but other than that, it's really good!
terri tiffany
07/14/07
I agree with the comment above - you are a good writer! You have captured the mood and emotions of this person perfectly! My only suggestion would perhaps be to break up her thoughts with some dialogue especially the last paragraph - it might make it a bit stronger and also show more than tell. Your title was what drew me in first - very creative!
Beth LaBuff
07/16/07
You have some good creative phrases. I like this: "admired the passion pink toe nail polish that was her own personal inauguration of spring".

Your story is a good lesson for all of us. Thanks!
Mo
07/17/07
Good descriptions. I could really see the girl.