The Aftermath

Every year Rosey Comfort takes her advanced creative writing class from Westview High School in Beaverton, Oregon, to the REAL. LIFE. Exhibit. After experiencing the exhibit as a group, the students immerse themselves in a place that particularly touched them, taking in the faces, the voices, the sounds, the textures, and the smells. Then they reach into themselves and do what many of us cannot do—they find the words to voice to their feelings, thoughts, and insights.

They write about their sadness, their anger, their shock, their guilt—and their resolve to do something about what they have experienced.

Read excerpts from some of the entries the class compiled into a book they titled The Aftermath.

To the Child of a Broken World by Simona Patange

Seven Hours by Ana Munoz

Walk This Way, Please by Kaylee Stocker

From Paradise to Nightmare by Steve Chandravongsri

It’s Real Life by Kayla Quinney

What Should I Do? by Alex Simich

REAL. LIFE. Reflections by Cristobal Herrera

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