I won a Funko Pop! prize from Grief Buddies for placing third in their Halloween Spooky Story Contest last year. Wee!
The story I submitted for the contest was titled "la petite mort", was the first real short-story I ever banged out on my old MacBook Pro for college Western Civilization class back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I thoroughly enjoyed that class, and I decided to write a sad short story for my final paper about a family reeling from the sufferings of World War II, and eventually, that of the 9/11 tragedy.
I remember spending a night and a half as awake and as inspired as fevered dreams can get you, clacking away on my keyboard with an urgency I've only felt once before, when I first began my attempts at writing on my father's old, big and chunky Dell laptop for work. My first amateur attempt on that old laptop was a Star Wars fan-fiction, about Han and Leia and their kids, laidback (ba dum dum tcsh) Luke and the mysterious Mara Jade, all of which matters no longer as none of them are canon. Thanks Disney.
I digress.
![A black background with minimal graphics of opaque spiderwebs on the front left and back right. Orange font in the middle reads: "1) A Monster – Aaryan Kapoor 2) The Bell – Colin Commager 3] La petite mort – Jaime Mah” in descending series of top to bottom. At the bottom right of the image is the white repost tag for @griefbuddies.site.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/63e49b_1b5c10e9251947628a9977285b213382~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_980,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/63e49b_1b5c10e9251947628a9977285b213382~mv2.jpg)
This story meant a lot to me, and still makes me smile sadly whenever I re-read it. I was a completely different person back then, and I can see past me clear as day right now, awake at 3am because I wanted to add a new section to my fledgling paper, and I just added more and more chapters until I knew it was finished. At least that story, anyway.
This was the first real taste I had of constructing my ideas into a flowing, written Thing, and I was so proud of myself for accomplishing it. Now, I'm even more proud, because that short story paid off and won me third place in a short story contest online!
It may not seem like a big deal, but I believe in celebrating and nurturing the small wins in this huge mess of a world. How else will life hold meaning day by day if joy isn't allowed to seep through? I am allowing myself to feel joy at this small win, and I hope you are allowing yourself to do the same in your day, too.
Also, isn't my Funko! Pop the best?! By the power of Grayskull! 🗡️💫
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