Inspired by SMITH Magazine’s recent anthology, The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists Famous & Obscure, English teacher Paul Jolly of Windsor High School in Windsor, CA asked his students write and share some Moments of their own.

Jolly first heard about The Moment when SMITH editor, Larry Smith, was interviewed on San Francisco public radio station KQED. “I loved the book and had shared several stories with my students, all high school juniors and seniors, most of whom have little to no confidence in their writing,” says Jolly. “They’ve had the usual crappy experiences in English class: inability to understand the reading, which leads to an inability to know what kind of help to ask for, which leads to lousy essays, which leads to insights such as, ‘School sucks.’” (more…)