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BookTrib has the honor of sharing this year’s winners for the 8th Annual Write a DearReader contest. Winners were selected from hundreds of entries. DearReader offers this competition each year just to encourage writing. It’s all about writing for fun.

Today’s story is DearReader’s 2nd place winner. Watch for the posting of the 1st place winning submission this week.2nd place has already posted you can find it by clicking here .  Maybe you’ll consider entering your story in the 9th annual DearReader contest happening summer 2013.  – Enjoy

Dear Reader,

Karen Friez had thought about entering the annual writing contest for the past few years, but always missed the deadline. Fear got in

the way. But thankfully not this year, because Karen’s entry won 1st place in the Write a Dear Reader contest. A copy editor for the past

13 years at a daily newspaper, Karen loves her job because while she’s editing stories, she gets to read stories she might not otherwise take the time to read.

“Kind of like the book club,” she said, “I’ve been a member for years and I’ve found some great books I might not have been aware of.” Karen has developed one of the traits of a good writer–she writes every day in her diary–which is really a Happiness Journal. “A woman from my church told me that when she was going through a difficult divorce, she started a daily happiness journal. When you keep a happiness journal, you’re always looking for something to write down. It changes your day.”

Reading Karen’s entry certainly changed my day. What a beautiful story.

Congratulations Karen and thank you for entering this year’s contest.

- Suzanne Beecher
Author, Muffins and Mayhem

 1st Place Winner

Karen Friez

32 Princess Street

 (Watch Out For Pink Dragons)

The doctor is in her office, which is a relief. You see, my giraffe’s spots have turned into stripes. As a responsible pet owner, I am deeply concerned about this turn of events. So I have loaded my giraffe onto my imaginary school bus and driven to 5 year old Dr. Emily’s office at 32 Princess Street, heeding her warning to watch out for pink dragons ambling across the road. As the young doctor studiously examines my giraffe, she informs me the problem is my pet food. It is turning my giraffe’s spots into stripes. She doles out the proper food and medication and then disappears back into her office at the top of the playground’s jungle gym. As the sun begins to set on the park, the veterinarian’s office closes for the night and we begin our trek home, stopping for an imaginary dinner of grass soup with acorn bread.

Actor John Leguizamo once said that, in parenting, “the days are long and the years are short.” This is the best description of parenting I’ve heard. As my daughter grew, she stopped visiting 32 Princess Street, her imagination captured by other things. I have traveled through each stage with her, from tea parties to Barbies to sleepovers, feeling both proud of her budding independence and sad for the things left behind.

As we go with our children minute by minute, hour by hour, sometimes we are too close to see the growth that is taking place, a lesson that was brought home to me by two photographs of my daughter taken at the same location one year apart. The physical differences in my daughter in just one year are striking. In the first photo, she i still a child, running away from the ocean’s waves. But, in the second photo, she has developed into a young woman, standing her ground and greeting the water with open arms. I wonder, as I look at these photos, why I hadn’t noticed the changes in her.

And I know there will be many more changes to come. There are still many firsts on the horizon, like her first boyfriend, who may also be become her first love, her first kiss and her first broken heart. From her first car to her first child, there are many milestones still to come in her life. As her mother I want everything to go smoothly, but I know that there will always be those pesky pink dragons (otherwise known as problems) trying to block her path in life. Sometimes those dragons will just be a small nuisance, but other times they will seem immovable. I hope, through it all, she learns that the power to overcome the dragons is within herself.

And so, for now, the office at 32 Princess Street is closed, relegated to the realm of childhood memories. But there are still many more memories to make in the years ahead. And perhaps, one day, she will have a daughter of her own, and they will return to 32 Princess Street and the land of the pink dragons.