Voice

June 12, 2019

Share your stories with VUMC Voice’s “99 words of summer”

Vacations, camp, baseball games, cutting the grass, watching soap operas, swimming, fireflies in the fading light…

Little asian lovely girl and her mother blowing soap bubbles on blurred nature background. Outdoors at the daytime with bright sunlight. Loving and happy family. Warm tone and vintage effect style.
By: Wayne Wood

What are your best summertime stories?

VUMC Voice wants to know your stories, and we want to see pictures, too (if you have them).

But there’s a catch: you have to tell your story in 99 words or fewer.

Some examples of what you might include (you don’t have to include all of these, and you aren’t limited to these; this is just to get you started):

  • What having summer off from school was like when you were a child or teenager
  • Your first or favorite summer job
  • Trips to visit relatives (now or when you were growing up)
  • Family vacations (now or when you were growing up)
  • Summer camp
  • Summer activities like swimming, fishing or playing outside
  • Summer chores like trimming hedges or mowing the yard
  • A favorite summer movie, or a trip to a ballpark or amusement park
  • What a summer night was or is like at your house

If possible, send a photograph that helps illustrate your story. Pictures aren’t required, but it’s great if you have one. It’s fine to send a cellphone picture of a recent vacation, but if you have an old photo, it’s OK to take a picture of the picture and send that. For example, if your story is about watching soap operas in the afternoons with your grandmother, send a picture of you and your grandmother.

Send your story (and picture, if you have one) to vumcvoice@vumc.org.

Put “99 words of summer” in the subject line, and in the body of the email include your name, IDs of people in your photo, and the name of the department where you work at VUMC.

The deadline to send in your story and photo is midnight on Monday, July 1.

The VUMC Voice staff will pick some of the best summer stories and will post them at VUMC Voice.

Submissions may be edited for clarity and style, but it’s important that you adhere to the 99-word limit.

Checklist for submission:

  1. Your name and department (as long as one of you works at VUMC, you’re eligible)
  2. Your 99-word (or fewer) summer story (Word attachment or body of the email are both fine)
  3. A photograph to accompany your story, if you have one, along with IDs of who is in the photo
  4. Send to vumcvoice@vumc.org
  5. Deadline is midnight, Monday, July 1

To see VUMC Voice’s earlier project “99 Words of Love,” go here and here.

Photos by iStock

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