{"id":3232,"date":"2011-12-16T09:31:42","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T14:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=3232"},"modified":"2014-04-07T07:16:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:16:12","slug":"winning-words-won-tyler-hix-a-poem-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=3232","title":{"rendered":"Winning Words Won Tyler Hix a Poem Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3234\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/DSC_0236rs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3234\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3234\" title=\"DSC_0236rs\" src=\"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/DSC_0236rs-300x216.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3234\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Receiving this honor felt great for senior Tyler Hix, but he admits that his poem was originally just a \u201cDo Now\u201d for theatre arts class. Photo by: Alaynee Mora<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>By Alaynee Mora<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Senior  Tyler Hix has worked hard for a long time to express himself through  his writing and his hard work finally paid off when his work was  published in the poetry anthology <em>Stars in Our Hearts<\/em>, which is published by the World Poetry Movement as part of their annual amateur poetry contest.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Hix  is an example of what self-confidence and hard work can do. Hix said,  \u201cHonestly, I thought I was going to win. The best way to be optimistic  and achieve anything you want is just to believe in yourself. If you  have confidence towards your work, then you have a better chance of  winning. However, as time passed, I forgot that I even submitted a poem  to a contest. Two months later, I got a letter in the mail saying that  my poem is going to be published in <em>Stars in Our Hearts<\/em>. It is such a great feeling and I am glad I followed my instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some  writers start writing when they are going through a rough time or just  simply finding an interest in writing and many different reasons. Hix  said he started writing \u201cwhen I was able to write. There really is not a  specific date on being able to write because all of the classes we take  require some sort of creative writing, or writing in general. I mainly  started writing good material junior and senior year. I have been  recording rap music which uses a lot of poetry in its elements. So it is  a great way to express how I feel,\u201d Hix said. Creative writing and a  lot of English teachers inspire kids to have hope in themselves and to  keep practicing their writing.<\/p>\n<p>People  think of writing as a \u201cstress reliever,\u201d a way to just express how they  feel, or let alone just letting their imagination come up with a  creative poem. Hix said, \u201cOf course I express how I feel towards  writing. In everything we express an opinion about the way we feel about  what you are arguing about. I feel as if the most valuable expressions  inside are the ones that are expressed through text and could be shared  with many readers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes  when authors write poems, they sometime always have someone they look  up to, or someone that inspired them to start writing. Hix said, \u201cI  would not quite call it an inspiration. It was me doing a Do Now in the  beginning of Theatre Arts I with Ms. [Jane] Faulstich and our  assignment was to write a poem on our definition of concentration. So  the inspiration, if any, would be my concentration towards one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Authors  normally have a meaning to their poems. Either a story of something  that actually happened or a fantasy that they have had. Authors  sometimes have some reasons why they started writing. Hix said, \u201cWhat  made me start writing poems was my interest in making rap music. Rap  music is misunderstood to be the \u2018bad kid\u2019 music. When you take the time  to listen to all of the different rap songs out there, there is way  more motivation to offer than what most songs have to offer. Once I  realized that my raps were pretty legitimate is when I took the time to  express my opinions or my morals and ethics on a piece of paper to  express them in a poem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Winning  any type of an achievement or award makes anyone feel special and  proud. Most people that win an award are shocked that they have won.  Most of the people that enter for contests always have no  \u201cself-confidence\u201d, but when they win, everything is turned around and  they feel so grateful that they have won that award. \u00a0Hix said, \u201cWinning  the award made me feel in a way as if I was on top of the world. You  know, you have certain relationships with many different teachers and  students that were way different before I got published. Now that many  teachers know about my publication, they seem to be more lenient and  express their thoughts in a more warm-feeling way. So in a sense,  winning the award made me feel proud in my hard work here at Plymouth  High School. In a more simple way of saying it, I feel so happy that not  many high-schoolers could quite understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hix\u2019s advice to future writers is \u201cDo not try  to get published, get published. Write something that means the most to  you and could be expressed and followed easily. Write something that is  unique to you and a trait that the typical person would not write  about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alaynee Mora Senior Tyler Hix has worked hard for a long time to express himself through his writing and his hard work finally paid off when his work was published in the poetry anthology Stars in Our Hearts, which &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=3232\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3232"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3320,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3232\/revisions\/3320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}