MACON, Ga. — Trinity Pace is a 6th grader at Clifton Ridge Middle School. She won an essay contest so her words appear in a nationwide book dealing with kids and coronavirus, but it wasn't just the pandemic that made an impact on her life.
"Coronavirus changed a lot of things I'm used to doing," Trinity said, as she read her own words from a book.
Trinity won first place in the state with her words, and now you can check it out in a new book called "Kids Journal Through Coronavirus."
Anytime you get your thoughts in print, it's exciting.
"Then I had my super-squeal reaction, and then my brother was like, 'Why are you squealing so much?' and I was like, 'It's my essay in the book,'" she said with a big smile.
"I miss my friends every day, although I can see them on Zoom and Facebook," she said, reading her essay.
She expresses what most of us feel right now, except many of us don't have a younger brother to contend with.
"Of course, little brothers are a pain, but since we are so close in age, he is like one of my best friends," she admitted.
Trinity and Daniel dealt with something else in 2020, something that touched them just as much as coronavirus, if not more.
"All of this police brutality and racism is making me think about my future -- no one should have to go through that," she read from her essay.
Tough words to hear from a child.
Charm Pace is Trinity's mom. She says the kids had more time on their hands staying home from school because of the pandemic, so they saw the racial unrest on television.
"We talked about the protests and how you can express yourself and your frustration in a positive, meaningful way," she explained.
In the wake of George Floyd's death, the Pace family joined a Black Lives Matter rally in Warner Robins, where Trinity learned more life lessons.
"I thought it was going to be scary, but then when I got there, it was perfectly fine," Trinity said.
In the end, the straight "A" student just wants everyone to be OK and stay safe.
"I hope the police brutality goes away, I hope the COVID virus goes away, and we can just see our friends," she projected.
Trinity is going to have a book signing Saturday at the Washington Library from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., and the first 20 families that show up with their kids get a free book. Trinity will sign all of them.