Those are the haunting words of one of the entrants in this year’s BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition.
So many youngsters opted to write about the plight of refugees that Oxford University Press (OUP) have named “refugee” as the children’s word of 2016.
The trend emerged after OUP analysed entries to the annual short story competition for children aged 13 and under.
Youngsters were asked to write an original work of fiction using no more than 500 words. The competition attracted more than 123,000 entries and the winners were announced on Chris Evans’s Radio 2 breakfast show last month.
Despite their young age, the children who entered the competition showed “a sensitive and mature understanding” of issues such as the war in Syria, the journey across the Mediterranean, people smugglers and the camps in Calais.
The subject matter mostly highlighted the plight of children of their own age leaving home and undertaking difficult journeys.
The attitude towards refugees was empathetic and there was a marked increase in words like boat, camp, dinghy, safe, flee, travel and trek.
Other people and subjects that influenced the children’s writing included British astronaut Tim Peake, Star Wars, Shakespeare and social media.
“The children writing in this year’s competition have demonstrated a sophisticated use of language in their story-telling,” said Vineeta Gupta, head of children’s dictionaries at OUP. “They have used rich descriptions to convey emotion and have produced powerful stories that resonate with the reader.”
As part of the BBC’s celebration of Shakespeare and the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, the winners were revealed at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. The Duchess of Cornwall, an honorary judge, presented the prizes.
The winner of the category for 10 to 13-year-olds was Ned Marshall, a 12-year-old pupil at Llanidloes High School in Powys, who wrote a story called e-COURTROOM.com. Writer Francesca Simon, who was one of the judges, described the story as “brilliantly original”.
The winners and many of the shortlisted entries in the 500 Words competition can be read at http://bbc.in/26b41md
A quick word: The Duchess of Cornwall with 500 Words winners Evie Fowler and Ned Marshall