A second essay from the Hilton College learner who earned 100% for his creative writing and over a million reads!
Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal (17 March 2026) – Last year, a Grade 11 learner named Guy Fender from Hilton College wrote a fictional essay about grief. His school, Hilton College, shared it online, and it went viral instantly.
It earned him 100%, over a million readers on social media and something even rarer – a chorus of strangers begging him to never stop writing.
“Last year, Guy Fender achieved a remarkable 100% for a piece of creative writing that reached more than 1.2 million readers on social media, with many calling for more of his work.” shared Hilton College recently.
This week, the school shared a second essay from their extraordinary student. This time, the subject is about being dropped from a rugby team, but in essence, it’s a meditation on identity, effort, and what happens when the thing you’ve built your life around closes its door on you.
“People think being dropped feels like a punch. It doesn’t. It feels like someone gently closing a door while you’re still talking.”
Beyond a command of imagery, the emotional intelligence underneath Guy’s writing shows that he has a gift for words, far beyond his years.
Readers have again responded in their thousands.
“This is the first real gift of writing I’ve read in a long time,” wrote one commenter. “You can reach inside people and lift out the meaning they did not know how to reach themselves,” wrote another.
A former rugby player said he related on every level. A mother said she was sending it to her sons.
Someone said: “A rugby player’s career lasts between 1 and 15 years. A writer’s lasts a lifetime.”
The essay, titled All Balloons Come Back Down, was published by the school two days ago and has been shared over 450 times on social media already, with thousands of comments and likes.
What struck us about this one is the honesty but also the hope it ends in. Our protagonist’s boots are still muddy, and he’s not where he thought he’d be. But the last line signals that things might be okay, and that’s a harder thing to write than triumph.
“I wasn’t done. I wasn’t finished. I just wasn’t where I thought I’d be. And for the first time, that felt like something I might be able to carry.”
If his first essay met you in your grief, this one will meet you in your disappointment.
Read the full essay below. (or here if you cannot see the post below).
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