To the People I've Lost

The fact that I will never get to meet you keeps me up at night

A tragic loss in which I will never truly understand because you died before I was born

Your daughter, my mom, sees you in me

The hair cut short and the interest in reading

If we could've met, would we have been close?

These are the words that begin "To the People I've Lost," a poem written by Columbia High School senior Aster Hjelm. Earlier this spring, Aster won both a gold medal and the American Voices Award at the national level in the 2026 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

More than 110,000 students from across the country entered more than 335,000 original works of art and writing for the competition, said Aster's teacher, Lindsay Mellon.

The poem is a deeply personal recollection of the people who've gone before her and the ways their presence is still felt, Aster said.

"Through internal reflection, my poem examines how everyday objects can have generations' worth of stories behind them," she said. "Personally, the objects that I value the most in my life are ones I have received from the people I love, but they're often associated with the people I have lost too."

Aster recalled that the day she wrote the rough draft for her poem, her cat knocked over collectible teacups she had inherited from her grandmother.

"A select few shattered on the ground before I could get to them, and just like that my heart shattered into a million pieces all over again," she remembered. "All the grief that I thought had subsided years after my grandma's death came back full force, and all I could feel was guilt for being careless enough to let her teacups sit around on a shelf collecting dust. That's when I turned to writing for comfort."

Aster has been writing poetry since she was in middle school.

"I've always loved storytelling, and from a very young age, I relied on my imagination and creativity to keep myself busy," she said. "Writing gradually became something that allowed me to work through my struggles, and I like to use it as a tool to speak in an unconventional way. Sometimes it's easier to get your thoughts out on paper first before speaking to someone about them."

Aster entered the Scholastic Awards last year and received two honorable mentions in the poetry category, and she credits Mellon, her English teacher, with being one of her biggest supporters.

"She's really made me feel like I can dream big despite the fact that I come from a small town," Aster said, noting that before taking a class with Mellon her junior year, she couldn't imagine even trying for an award. "Her guidance and support in the process really helped give me the confidence to be vulnerable and submit my works for judging."

Aster entered the poem in the fall of 2025 and learned she had received a Gold Key and an American Voices Award nomination in late January when the regional awards were announced.

"If you receive a Gold Key, it means your work will go on to be judged at a national level," she said, adding that she found out she won in late March at a time she was already nervously waiting for an important college decision. She went out to eat with a friend to attempt to calm her nerves, kept refreshing the Scholastic Awards portal and literally screamed with joy when she discovered she won. Less than 30 minutes later, she learned she'd been waitlisted at New York University, which she considered a huge win after receiving two previous college rejections. She was able to update her NYU application with any achievements she hadn't listed previously, so she added the Scholastic Awards.

"It was perfect timing, and I finally felt like all the hard work I've put in during high school was rewarding," she said, adding that her plans after graduation are still a bit undecided. "I'm planning to major in film and minor in creative writing. My ultimate goal is to work in the film industry as a scriptwriter and become a published author one day."

Aster, who is the child of Marci and Patrick Hayes of Columbia, credits her love of writing to her grandmother, Sue Brubaker, who passed away five years ago and was the first person Aster lost.

"I'll always remember the fun adventures we would go on every weekend when I was a kid: trips to Walmart, baking banana bread and reading books before bed," she said of the woman who embraced Aster's creativity and curiosity. "But what will never fade from my memory with time was the day she showed me her unpublished short stories. She was an aspiring writer herself when she was young, but no one took a chance on her work. Ever since then, I've wanted to achieve our shared dream for the both of us. Even though she's not here today, I hope that she'd be proud of me for what I've accomplished up to this point."