{"id":9478,"date":"2025-05-06T19:08:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T23:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=9478"},"modified":"2025-05-07T13:03:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T17:03:44","slug":"six-word-memoirs-inspire-umpi-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2025\/05\/06\/six-word-memoirs-inspire-umpi-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Six-Word Memoirs Inspire UMPI Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Marah Russell, UTIMES Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRESQUE ISLE\u2013Six-word memoirs are a unique form of concise storytelling that challenge writers to convey their life story or a significant moment in just six impactful words. Scholars attribute this concept to author Ernest Hemingway. Tasked with crafting a nonfiction story in six words, he responded, \u201cFor sale: baby shoes, never worn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2006, Smith Magazine<\/em> popularized this challenge by inviting readers to summarize their life stories in six words. The project quickly caught on, inspiring millions of submissions. The magazine’s editors have compiled several books featuring the most memorable six-word memoirs nearly twenty years later.”\\<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This creative challenge came to life once again during the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s 22nd annual University Day on April 16, thanks to the efforts of The<\/em> University Times <\/em>staff. Organizers invited students, staff, and faculty to embrace the spirit of Hemingway by becoming authors of their own six-word stories. The team received 32 submissions, each showcasing a unique perspective and level of creativity, ranging from witty to impactful. From those submissions, the staff selected five winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winners of this challenge are as follows:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1st<\/strong> Place: Stella Hardy <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce chained to fear, now free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2nd<\/strong> Place: Aubrey Sinclair<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlight; Alive again; I\u2019m Phoenix Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3rd<\/strong> Place: Christian Guimond<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWifi down. Faced real life. Help!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4th<\/strong> Place: Jamie Bryan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon’t think, just do, then regret.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5th<\/strong> Place: Ricky Garcia <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank god my parents were drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional Submissions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWide-eyed, naivety, espace, guilt, rebuilding, discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heather Nunez-Olmstead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are just words, damn it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen Morrill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like you don\u2019t know me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cathy Anderson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBorn to love, live to create.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lilliana Ainsworth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPrairie girl gone east for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evie Elijah <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStarted adulting, want a refund now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anonymous<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGive back to all students always.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danielle<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBorn a ginger, die a ginger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myka Clark <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWORDS ARE LOADED PISTOLS, SPEAK UP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomasz Herzog <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh shit, here we go again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marissa Havey <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLife is both sweet and sour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia Gutierrez <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause the snow begged, I\u2019m born.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winter Garrett <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTraveled to the USA for basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aleix Grano <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHectic, wild, ride, of memorable lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venessa Frizarry <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreative, driven, loyal, thoughtful, ambitious, passionate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Clark<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLearning to know; Knowing to teach\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anonymous <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI owe my life to God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anonymous <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI asked for help too late.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damien Pearson <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is not all over yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbuse overcome, love and compassion foraged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashton Henry <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne day is worth the struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Dobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh gosh help me. All love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miranda Cole<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlways busy, working, and worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kadence Dow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI lived, I laughed, I learned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Houston <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Marah Russell, UTIMES Staff Writer PRESQUE ISLE\u2013Six-word memoirs are a unique form of concise storytelling that challenge writers to convey their life story or a significant moment in just six impactful words. Scholars attribute this concept to author Ernest Hemingway. Tasked with crafting a nonfiction story in six words, he responded, \u201cFor sale: baby […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":9479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9481,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9478\/revisions\/9481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}