Today’s prompt took me back to the opening of my college freshman class, English 101: Composition Writing. The professor wanted to assess the skills of the students and wrote six topics on the board as writing prompts.

1. Tattoos
2. Teenagers
3. Body Piercings
4. Public Transportation
5. Small Pets
6. Old People

The instructions were to take 10 minutes to write two pages of text, by hand. There were no computers in the classroom. You could tell a story, debate a topic, share a memory, and so on. It was a creative writing exercise with a short time limit.

I chose to blend all six and submitted:

“Tattooed teenagers with multiple body piercings should avoid riding public transportation where they may encounter old people with small pets…”

*ding

Time’s up.