Mark Diffenderfer, of Bloomfield Township, Mich., has written hundreds of poems since he was in grade school, but he never thought they'd win him any recognition.
But the 18-year-old entered the USA Weekend Songwriting Contest for Teens on a whim — and ended up beating out more than 12,000 other entries with "Make a Difference, Make Your Meaning."
Judges were past "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino and "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell.
"I was honestly blown away. I didn't know I wrote something that would do so well," said Diffenderfer.
As part of his prize, the teen was flown to Los Angeles for the "American Idol" season finale, where he met Cowell.
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Researchers investigating the content of films, especially romantic comedies, are finding that love as depicted has very little to do with real life. Marriage is often portrayed as entirely distinct from romance.
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