Don't Be A Pawn (Version 1)

First piece for my coursework, a 300 word article.

As I gazed at the pale yellow shell of what was once a well respected and dignified pass-time, my heart bawled for humanity.'Deluxe Chess/Checkers/Draughts'. A box, packed with centuries of joyful memories; simply cast away into a space between two cupboards, as if no-one would ever notice. Is this what the next generation holds? Must the future shovel another of our beloved traditions into it's filthy gullet? Is it too late? Perhaps a chess-less future is all that awaits humanity. Kids won't know what they've missed.

This was the perfect article. One to surely impress my peers. I promptly turned to my teacher to share my new story on behalf of the neglected chess-box- confident that she would agree. However, she quickly replied that, in fact, this chess box was far from neglected and was used daily by sixth formers. She even rallied another teacher over to confirm that the chess box was a perfectly happy one- opening the box to show it was empty. The board was being used as we spoke. 'But you could write your article about that' she continued. 'How you didn't notice...'.

Well I felt silly.

Not only that, I was ashamed. I always try to defend my fellow teenagers from the 'oh, kids today and their technology' rubbish shared among grumpy old people and mums. But here I simply look at a chess box and presume that no teen nowadays would want to play a board-game.

Perhaps it was some sort of subconscious desire to be on the same wavelength as my peers. Although that's even worse- that just means I was trying to suck up to them. Which also suggests that they are grumpy old people; of course, they are not. I felt like a sheep- a slave to the opinions of others who only knows how to follow.

A silly sheep.

Folks, don't be a silly sheep.