Theme explained:

The theme for fall 2025 PSPP is:

“Unbelievable”  

Thoughts on the theme:

Personal stories about the stories we tell ourselves—rumors, myths, and superstitions—and then question.

Well, I always thought...• Third time is the charm. • Everybody else is going. •
Fingers crossed on Friday the 13th. • It’s God’s will. •
Well, I heard —and I’m pretty sure it’s true… •  Father knows best. •
They lived happily ever after. • I’ve got on my lucky shirt and hat. •
Yeah, I’m smart enough. • That’ll never happen.

 
The truth of a matter is one thing. What we believe to be true is perhaps more important, certainly it is as it affects us and what we do in our own lives. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves come from somewhere and then we tend to repeat them until we start to believe them without remembering or considering the source—a parent, a friend, a babysitter, a preacher, a teacher, a book, a movie, any modern media, or the universe of “I’ve-always-heard” ideas. And then we get busy living.

What we believe is just that, it’s what we believe. It’s our actions taken on those beliefs that have consequences—for better and for worse—to keep us safe or put us in peril. We don’t make it all up as we go along in life. We all have stories looping in the backs of our minds that tell us what’s what and how to behave. But the world changes and we change. Sometimes what we believe still works and sometimes it doesn’t. And that’s why you have a story to tell.

Tell us yours. 

The stories we want are about you and the times you acted on your beliefs that you maybe later came to question or confirm. Were you imprinted from circulating rumors, gossip and hearsay, perhaps from a scolding or loving parent/caregiver, or from widely held notions accepted more-or-less unquestioned as explanatory tales for the way things are, or from an unjustifiable reliance on a supernatural explanation for causes of outcomes we all experience. How did that belief guide you in life or in an particular instance? What did you learn or confirm, and how did you change, if you did? What did you decide to believe and why?

Share your story in 750-800 words

Here are some thoughts that might spark your own discovery of ideas. These are not prescriptive, not intended to circumscribe the notion of what you might write. Have fun with it.

“Hey, Fatty. Yeah, you.”

Pretty is as pretty does.

Children are to be seen and not heard.

Fingers crossed on Friday the 13th.

Well, I always thought…

Gotta be true. I saw it on TV.

“You know, you can’t get pregnant on a Friday.”

I don’t think you are college material.

I always heard…

Everybody says…

Third time is the charm.

That wouldn’t be a problem if you knew what you were doing.

If you break a mirror, it’s seven years of bad luck.

Never walk under a ladder.

If I give in, they’ll like me.

“All the other kids are going.”

“You is smart. You is kind. You is important.”

“Something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue.”

“The face that launched a thousand ships.”

Well, I always thought...

Third time is the charm.

Everybody else is going.

Father knows best.

It’s God’s will.

He would never do that to me.

Well, I heard —and I’m pretty sure it’s true…  

She told me so, yes.

They lived happily ever after.

I’ve got on my lucky shirt and hat.

Yeah, I’m smart enough.

That’ll never happen.

We are often asked what our theme is “about.” We happily reply that we will know when our writers tell us. And, so now it is your turn. Tell us your story of “Unbelievable.” Then we’ll all learn together what it means.

Be safe. Spread kindness. Keep writing.

Write your story. Surprise us. Surprise yourself.