Our Short Stories: Year 5

To end our unit of study on short stories, we wrote some of our own inspired by an image. Take a look at our best work from the students in Year 5:

I'm Out

by Giulio Marradini, Eleonora Nuti, Neri Raspanti

I do not feel comfortable in my life anymore. My routine kills me day after day and I cannot stand my girlfriend any longer. Hi, my name is Matthew, I am 28 years old and I’m in a crisis. 

Let’s start from the beginning. I am an accountant, I hate my job, it is repetitive, overwhelming, stressful. I work up to ten hours a day and oh my God, my colleagues are so irritating I won’t even waste a word on them. 

At home the matter is awful as well. My girlfriend Susie (even her name disgusts me now) makes me go crazy. She claims she needs a baby, she wants to experience motherhood, but what the heck, I’m not ready for it! Who on earth would ever wish a baby human to control his life? Not me!! 

It has been for quite some time that I have been feeling this way, but now, thank God, I found the solution: I quit, I’m out, goodbye everyone! I have decided that I am going to work from the beach of a forgotten island (thanks for existing technology!). All I am going to need is my desk, my computer and a roof over my head. 

I have just packed my things and left a message for Susie on which I wrote that she must never try to  reach me again for the rest of her life. It’s official: I am leaving, I leave the life I hate.  

I have just got on my new island; I love it! I feel more as free than I have ever felt in my life! My first month here has been amazing. I was able to manage my existence the way I always wished: stress is gone, I no longer hate my job, and I eat, listen, watch and do whatever I want. However, after having arrived on this island a while ago, my happiness has already vanished. I am an insatiable human being. I realized I am always looking for pleasure and calm, but apparently nothing indulges my needs. I believe I am not right for this world, neither company nor loneliness is what I desire. I am out again, I don’t even know where I will end up. I hope somewhere... nowhere.  

Several weeks have passed and no one has received Matthew’s news. That was bizarre since he would  usually respond to his mother and his boss, but yet both of them were newsless. What happened? Rescuers were sent to the island, though Matthew was not found. All they saw were footprints on the sand disappearing into thin air. 

FAUST

by Freddi, Graffia, Santini

Faust had never been so happy since he was a child. He forgot his loneliness when he saw that beautiful sunset. He felt less lonely even if he was alone on that beach than when he was surrounded by a lot of people in chaotic London. He left his family and parents because he felt oppressed by that frenetic life in a metropolis. Now, in that little paradise on a small island in Oceania, he felt like he was connected with nature. He discovered his origins when he deleted all the superficial things in life.

Since Faust was a child, he thought he was not like the others; he wasn’t attracted by what his classmates liked, and didn’t aspire to have a good job. He just wanted to find his place in the world. He had always been seen as a bad kid, because his classmates thought he was very weird and too quiet. Paradoxically, he felt happy when he was alone and that was the reason why as an adult he decided to leave everything, even his job, buy a boat and sail to Oceania. Because of a failure on his boat, he was forced to stay on a deserted island with nothing but animals and plants; he needed to survive there. Finally, he understood his place in the world and he felt ecstatic, and lived there forever.