August 5th, 2026

By Zane, a student at Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School

In January, I signed up for the Writer’s Craft course at my school, Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School. I had never thought of myself as much of a writer, but it looked fun.

Our very first assignment was to write the first page of a novel set 150 years in the future. In the novel, we showed the consequences of events happening today. I chose to write about rising sea levels and their effect on island nations.

The story centres around the town of New Tuvalu, British Columbia and their people, who immigrated after the waters claimed their island. In the story, rare earth metals were found beneath New Tuvalu, and its people needed to be relocated. The story follows the main character, Fenua, who is illegally protesting against relocation. When he is caught by police, he is offered a deal to avoid deportation in exchange for acting as an informant inside the anti-relocation movement.

The assignment followed the rules of the CBC Books First Page Student Writing Contest. My teacher encouraged us to submit our work for consideration. A few hours before the contest closed, I sent mine in. Then, I forgot about it.

Weeks passed by, and I ended up as a finalist along with many other amazing writers from across Canada. CBC published an article detailing the finalists and our pieces and I was then interviewed by CBC Radio Kitchener-Waterloo. It was very cool talking to friends and teachers about the whole experience.

While I was not the grand winner, this opportunity helped me push outside my comfort zone in a field I previously knew nothing about. It was a great learning opportunity, an amazing experience; I felt really great about what I created, and I’m now proud to call myself a writer!

#StudentVoice Series

This article is written by a WRDSB student. Student journalists embody WRDSB’s commitment to creating space for students to tell their stories. They are ambassadors for their peers as they share their personal experiences and stories about their schools and communities in their unique voices.