Holiday Writing Competition – 3rd Place Winner

We are excited to share the story that won 3rd place in the 2022 BK Newspaper Holiday Writing Contest! The Third Place Winner is Josephine Klaas (Freshman). Congratulations!

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A Christmas of Teeth and Tamales

Third Place Winner: Josephine Klaas

Before I begin my essay, let it be clear that the term “favorite” only applies to this story several years after it occurred. I was about 11 years old when I faced the time in my life that all middle schooler’s dread: getting braces. And to make things worse, I had two stubborn teeth that refused to fall out, and had to be pulled. Unfortunately, the date of the dentist appointment to remove the teeth in question was on Christmas Eve. Keep in mind that this was my first experience with getting numbing shots. They tell you that you can’t feel the shots except the first one. They lie. After five shots of numbing have been injected into all possible angles of my gums, my dentist began the process of yanking out my deeply rooted canines. Luckily, it was brief. About an hour later, a dazed, puffy faced, and gauzed up sixth grade version of myself shuffled out of the dentist office and into my moms car. To say I was miserable is a massive understatement. My face was completely numb and I could hardly speak. I was bleeding through gauze every five minutes. Most of all, I was ready to go home and sleep off my pain. Unfortunately, that was not in my mother’s plan. I climbed into the car and within minutes realized that we were not driving home, but we were going to pick up Christmas Eve dinner. I groaned but agreed to wait in the car for the promised 15 minutes. 15 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour passed. I sat in the car, short two teeth from when I arrived, suffering. In the seat next to me, my little sister sat in tears worrying that my mother “had been kidnapped”. After what seemed to be a decade, she finally returned from the long line for Christmas Eve tamales. Moral of the story: Tamales are worth any amount of pain.