Please go to the website link below, which will take you to the "This I Believe" web page. Then, under the "Browse" tab, find an essay to listen to or read (you can browse by theme or popularity, for example). In a comment:
1) name and briefly summarize the essay you chose
2) identify any elements of the personal essay you heard
3) briefly tell us your personal reaction to the essay
http://thisibelieve.org/
Today I was feeling a little blue, so I decided to choose an essay from the topic "laughter and humor." Ironically, the song "O Holy Night" had just come on on my computer (it was on shuffle!), and the third essay was named just that, so I clicked on it. The essay was about a girl's experience in her third grade nativity play when she had the solo and sang the wrong lyrics in the middle of it, running off the stage in embarrassment. She refused to sing any longer, except for singing quietly in her shower, until the day she got her license, when she realized how silly she had been for letting that experience ruin something she loved to do.
ReplyDeleteThe author uses inductive reasoning in her essay, starting with her personal experience of embarrassment to demonstrate her point that you shouldn't go through life worrying what others think about you. At the end of her essay, she states her thesis, which is "It doesn’t matter what other people think of you; and you should never try and change yourself to meet society’s standards. No one knows every word to every song, but that doesn’t mean they should hold back from belting it out."
I am actually really surprised that I randomly picked this essay because something very similar to her experience happened to me. In my very first voice recital in 7th grade I forgot all of the lyrics to the song I was singing and spent an agonizing 30 seconds on the stage in silence before I found my place again and kept singing. After the recital I was mortified; I bawled to my mom and never wanted to see anyone at that recital again. I thought I would die of embarrassment and swore that I would never sing in front of an audience again. However, time heals all wounds, and the next year I was back singing in front of an audience as Dorothy in the middle school play. I realized that the only person's opinion of my singing that mattered was my own.
I really like how the author compared everyone's unique personality to singing a song that everyone knows to different lyrics; everyone interprets the words in a different way, and all you can do is sing it your best. Who cares what other people think?
1) The Tense Middle - Roald Hoffmann, a winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, offers the idea of an equilibrium in chemistry that can be applicable to everyday life. He suggests that the tense middle satisfies him because it shows that everything isn't set as "good" or "bad", but rather can be changed. He gives examples of his background, chemistry, and inanimate objects to prove his point that an equilibrium is fluid and we always have the choice to change it.
ReplyDelete2) The key elements in this personal essay were the great uses of different diverse types of examples and anecdotes of his life to provide more to the idea that nothing is set in stone and can always be able to change. He talks about his background in Poland, in Nazi antisemitism. Most of his family died there, but due to a school teacher that helped hide his mother and him, he realized that there isn't anything to bind him to "fate" in a sense, but rather anything can be changed. He also gives the example of chemistry to prove his point. He says atoms A and B can bond to form a whole new substance, and then combine and break down to form more diverse, different, and new substances. The constant and inevitable change is why chemistry resists classification. He also gives anecdotes about inanimate objects such as morphine, which can be good in helping numb areas, but then bad in leading to addiction.
3) I really liked this personal essay. It was beautifully written and really conveyed a strong message. After listening to the anecdotes, although Hoffmann doesn't specifically say the purpose of his stories, in the end, I fully understand how the tense middle and the equilibrium are a comfortable place to be because of the flexibility and fluidity that does not set any one thing as certain. We all have a choice to do good or bad, but that wouldn't make up us as a whole as deemed fully "good" or "bad". Also, I really like chemistry, so I loved the way Hoffmann incorporated that into a human condition sort of personal essay. I would originally think that chemistry and teachings of human condition would not go together, but Hoffmann employs those two with lots of synergy! That level of skill for a personal essay seems really astounding to me.
"I believe in the power to forget," is the first line in "The Power to Forget" by James (unknown last name). This essay starts with him waking up to police sirens after his father has been shot. The rest of the essay is spent on trying to forget about the man who killed his father by trying to erase the murderer from his memory. In the end, he states that if people would just forget about injustices done to them and injustices they caused that much conflict in the world would not exist. It would free those bound in one moment of incomprehensible anger at the person who wounded them in one way or another. This essay starts of with a general statement, the first line, and then he proves his thesis through showing and explanation. Finally he ends in another general statement, expanding even farther beyond him to the world as a whole. This essay would be a personal essay that used deductive and inductive reasoning effortlessly. He strengthens his argument by stating that he struggled with forgetting because people kept trying to bring it up, and that adds a layer of authenticity as well since we can easily relate to failure. He contradicts popular culture by implying that those who end up trying to "find the bastard who killed my pa" are stuck in time until they kill their father's killer and they chose to kill rather than try and forget. This essay in the end gives you a lot to think about and leaves you reflecting on how forgetting would change your perception of the world. This essay had fluidity to and even when it jumped the general to specific to general again, it left me unfazed in my reading. I thought the essay was well written because it left a persont to reflect on themselves, and it was very enjoyable in the end.
ReplyDeleteI read an essay from the "Laughter and Humor" section, because, well, who doesn't enjoy a funny story? I scrolled through the pages and I decided to read "The Magic Poop Doctor", which just so you know isn't about poop. The story was about a Chinese-American woman who had never believed her Chinese grandmother's old pain anecdotes. One day, the night before the author's flight to Hong Kong, she stepped on an uneven spot in the pavement and sprained her ankle. Upset, she called her father who told her of a relative in China whose broken rib was miraculously cured by an old Chinese doctor. She then decided to visit a Chinese healer who applied a brown paste to her ankle, which had the same color and texture of dog dung. To her surprise, her ankle healed after just two days, a shock since with Western medicine it would have taken more than two weeks to heal. The author concluded by saying that ever since this incident she listens to her grandmother.
ReplyDeleteIn this essay the author uses inductive reasoning, she starts out with a long detailed description of her own experience, and then moves out to a broader conclusion. The thesis is stated in the last sentence when the author says, "Now, I think twice about what my Chinese grandma tells me." Although this may seem like a silly individual sentence, I think the author is implying that you shouldn't completely ignore any advice, rather think about it before dismissing it. I also like how the author mixes Chinese and American culture into her essay, writing about how her Chinese and American mind influences the ways she sees things. When she hears the story about her relative in China whose back was cured she says, "there is a tendency to question assertions with both a wary American and a wary Chinese eye." Being and Indian-American I especially appreciate how she reflects the influence of two cultures in her writing.
Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this personal essay. The interesting, if not a bit weird title caught my eye, and I'm really glad I read the essay. It was refreshing to read a short, yet comical personal essay and one that wasn't too serious.
To find the essay I wanted to read I went to the most viewed essay section because I didn't feel like having to choose a topic I wanted to read about. I scrolled through the page quickly and "I believe in laughter" immediately caught my eye. If you're wondering what kind of essay "I believe in laughter" is about, it's about laughter. (Surprise!) This essay was short; it was only 4 small paragraphs. She talks about the different types of laughter and focused on the laughter that make your eyes water and your bellyache. She talked about her experiences as a kid and being klutzy. She then told us a story of when she was accepting an award in school and pretty much fell of the stage. Instead of being embarrassed she started laughing uncontrollably. She talked about how you can never really grow out of being a klutz. It's something you live with your whole life. She ended her essay with saying that the ability to laugh is a great gift and gave some advice. "So the next time you do something embarrassing…just laugh. Trust me, it will work."
ReplyDeleteMy author used inductive reasoning in her essay. She started out with specific things she does that make her a klutz, told us how she gets embarrassed and how her face turns red, and even gives us an example of when she laughed, really laughed, at herself. She takes specific things in her life that happened to her to relate with other people and ultimately give people some advice.
I really enjoyed this essay. The author opens with "I believe in laughter, especially when you can laugh at yourself." That is something I can really relate to. In fact, most of the essay I can relate to. I'm unbelievably klutzy, and whenever I'm embarrassed a turn a deep shade of red just like the author. When you’re like that there's really only one thing to do, which is to laugh at yourself. When I was younger, I hated being a klutz and hated to be the girl that turned bright red whenever something embarrassing would happen (or whenever I got upset) but now I've learned to accept it and so have my friends and family. I seriously can't tell you how many times I trip over myself a day, or drop something at lunch, but instead of being embarrassed I learned to just laugh it off. I feel like people that take themselves to seriously not freak out about every little thing that they do wrong or about what people think about them. Like the author says, "To me, the ability to laugh at yourself is a great gift."
When I went on this website I wanted to read something good so I looked under the most viewed and read a few until I found one personal essay that was very interesting to me. It is called “I didn’t wash my car last month”. This seemed like it would be boring but was very interesting. It talked about how the writer did not wash his car last night because it didn’t pass his rocking chair test. This test is whenever he is wondering if he should do something, he thinks will he have wanted to spend more time doing that when he is sitting in his rocking chair when he is older. He said he thought do I wish I spent more time washing my car, and the answer was obviously no so he did not wash his car. Then he continued on talking about other instances such as watching T.V., reading, and doing drugs. In this essay I saw three elements of personal essays. The first was that it is inductive. The story goes from him telling you about how he didn’t wash his car to finally talking about being older wondering whether or not you spent your time wisely. This is obviously inductive reasoning. Also, I saw that this essay had elements of mania in it. It shows how the author is obsessed with his model of him thinking about his rocking chair and he cares a lot about the subject. Finally it has a thesis at the very end of the essay talking about his rocking chair thoughts, which is necessary in personal essays. My personal thoughts on this essay are intrigued. I never have really thought about thinking things this way and that it’s a very interesting way to put your actions in thought. I may even start doing it before I act. This entire essay has been though provoking about what to do with my life and how I should spend my time. Over all this was a great essay and it was fun to read.
ReplyDeleteI read "I Believe in the Car Radio," by someone named Molly from Pittsburgh. In this essay, Molly talks about how hearing a random song on a radio can bring back random memories. She gives the example of hearing the song "Blinded by the Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band come on the radio. She said it immediately brightened up her day because it brought to mind an embarrassing situation from her freshman year of high school, where that song came on and her mom started singing it. To make it worse, her mom turns around and asks her and her friends if they think the lyric in the chorus is "deuce" or "douche." The memory may not be the most happy one, but hearing the song on the radio reminds her of times that are funny to look back on. I saw a few themes in this essay that we talked about in class. First was Universal and Particular. The situation mentioned in this essay can apply to anybody. No matter how bad a day you have or how bad you are feeling, you can turn on the radio and have a song remind you of a good time you had or a funny memory, and cheer you up instantly. The particular was that in her case, it was a memory of "Blinded by the Light," but it also represented another Universal experience, being a teenager and not wanting your parents to embarrass you in front of your friends. Another theme I noticed was Inductive reasoning. Molly starts off with her specific experience and then gets more broad by talking about other memories, and then how it can apply to other people. As for me, I really enjoyed the essay. It brought about mixed feelings in me. Obviously, this kind of thing happens to me every once in a while, but in a different way than was presented in the article. The author talks about a specific memory the song would bring back. In my case, usually I just feel like "Hey, here's a good song that I have listened to before and liked. Let's belt it out!" Songs don't usually bring back specific memories to me. In addition, I noticed that Molly was happy to st.Tart belting it out right away. This is what really brought out the mixed feelings in me. I would sometimes really get embarrassed by doing this. A few rare times I just do it anyway because I am feeling bold, but the majority of the time, I feel paranoid and keep looking around to see if anybody is watching. Over all, I really did enjoy the essay and hope that others will read it and see what I mean.
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ReplyDeleteI clicked on patriotism; saw "That Old Piece of Cloth," and the date, 9/11.
ReplyDeleteFrank Miller, a comic book artist, is speaking about his experience as a boy up north during the 1960's. He says that he had grown up around his parents, FDR patriots, and was ready to rebel. Unlike everyone else, he studied works of independence by Franklin and Jefferson.
Then the "real thing showed up." When the terrorists' hit, he was just one mile from the World Trade Center. The catastrophe killed his neighbors and many citizens of New York. He changed his mind after that day.
Now he believes that patriotism=central to a nation's survival. He thinks that everyone should have each other's back and he can look at that "old piece of cloth," our American flag, with thanks.
Sitting in my room, listening to Miller, he said the word peace as I turned to look at the symbol up above my headboard. He said he could not stand the sight of it during the 60s due to its overuse. As I looked at it, I remembered what my pastor had said in my church service this morning, "America needs peacemakers."
I chose to look at essays under the "music" topic, and I skimmed a few to find one that really caught my eye. I ended up reading an essay called "Portrait of the Absurdist as a Young Man" by someone named Joe from Overland Park, Kansas. The essay deals with how Joe wanted to be a writer, but he felt like his life wasn't interesting or glorified enough for him to have experiences to write about, so he joined a rock band. Instead of finding typical, perfect, cliché experiences to write about, he used the imperfections and realities of the rock scene as material. In the essay, he says that the human, real, often absurd moments are what he believes real beauty in art is, not the stylized moments he had pictured before.
ReplyDeleteThis essay uses inductive reasoning to prove its thesis, that beauty is reality and imperfection. It starts with the story of the narrator joining a band and then reaches its conclusion through his experiences. He uses his moments and encounters with true human elements, chaos, reality, and absurdity to prove his idea of beauty.
I really enjoyed this essay. Music is a huge part of my life, and one of the reasons I love it so much is because I believe it can tap into that feeling of true reality and human expression that Joe describes in his essay. Even though music was only one component of his essay, he touched on the idea of beauty in chaos, humanity, and reality that I love in music, and also in writing. The thesis of beauty in deeply human events is one I fully agree with, and I felt like this essay perfectly worded some ideas I've had myself. I really felt that I could relate to this essay and that it spoke to me in multiple ways. Overall, I think this was an excellent essay about music, writing, humanity, and beauty.
I decided to read an essay from the "gratitude" section that was called "Meaning in the Spectrum of Experience." This essay was about a woman who had been through a lot of different experiences in her life, wonderful and horrible. After reading the book "The Giver" she realized how lucky she was to have experiences and to remember them. She theorizes that the reason we watch certain emotional movies is because they deal with struggles we can relate to. These struggles tug at our emotions which enrich our lives, giving our experiences meaning. One element of a personal essay that Sara uses is one of inductive reasoning. She uses different specific experiences to then make a general statement about all of her life experiences. She also uses anecdotes at the end to show the struggles of her father's life at the end, rather than telling us. For example, instead of saying "My father dealt with a lot of loss and hardship in his childhood," she says, "his mother secretly saving the milk bottle’s cream just for him; after she died, his brother running away from the orphanage in which they were raised." This gives the personal essay a high memetic value and authenticity. I thought that this was a wonderful essay that was short and sweet and to the point without being too forward or too brief. I can relate to the references she made to "The Giver" since I read it in 6th grade. I also thought that her point was very valid. Everyone has struggles in life, and they get more serious and multiply as one grows older. However, if we can look back on what we have experienced, we would see that they made us who we are today, and we are lucky to remember them and learn from them. Though I have not had any horrible situations, I can relate to this point, and I feel like many people, including me, don't take a step back and look at all their experiences good and bad and feel gratitude. However, we should know that just the fact that we can remember them, and that we have experienced them has made us who we are today.
ReplyDeleteBe Cool To The Pizza Delivery Dude was the essay of my choice. I chose this essay due to the very distinct title. The author, Sarah Adams, points out that in life we must always give way and be nice the the pizza delivery dude. Then the essay briefly gives reasons and principles on how she came to such a conclusion and ends the essay asking you to tip him so that the universe will give you something in return.
ReplyDeleteThe personal essay used inductive reasoning to establish its point; It gave a brief intro, four principles/reasons, and then her conclusion. She takes the reader into the perspective of the pizza guy. She explains to us what his importance is and how he serves his purpose.
My personal reaction to the essay was happy. The essay seemed a brief bundle of interesting things that I've never thought of before. Although I don't completely agree, she managed to state her argument very well.
I was in the mood for some humor so I looked in the "humor and laughter" section and found an essay titled "I Believe in Being a Nerd!" The essay was about a woman who classified herself as an "undercover nerd". An undercover nerd is said to be someone who tries to hide that they posses the qualities of a nerd, such as taking the time to study, or enjoying learning. Many people relate to being an undercover nerd, but will not show it due to the reprocussions that might follow. The author of this personal essay does not care about being a nerd. She believes in working hard, setting high standards for herself, and going for the big goals. She believes in being a nerd.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that the author uses inductive reasoning. She first expresses specifics about her life and being a nerd. She then lists her personal goals and dreams and what is important to her. She ends the essay with a general state about nerds and that it is not a bad thing to be pegged as one.
Personally, I really enjoyed this essay. In most schools today, it may be considered weird or "geekish" to take extra time learning or studying the material, or being a "nerd". This essay shows those people who try to hide who they really are that being a nerd is not bad! It actually gets you farther in life and I think more people should think like the author of this essay.
I read the essay "Enough," by Darby. It's about how she tries to explain her concept of enough, from her perspective of live in rural Maine. She says that her concept of enough is different from everyone she knows. She says that their concepts are different are different from her city friends because they didn't grow up the same way. She shows her different examples of what is enough, from picking muscles out of the ocean to cook or to watch the coming snow storm make its way towards her home.
ReplyDeleteI think that this essay uses a clear opening and explains all of what its going to be said. She does use inductive reasoning to show her examples. She does use a lot of examples to show her point without actually telling us what her idea of enough is.
This poem is interesting to me because it makes me wonder of what enough is to me. This short essay shows me that we have to value the things we have. We will not know when it is enough right away. She shows that to know and appreciate what we have is not possible right away, but comes with experience and change. I think that this was a great short essay. It made me think about what is enough.
I read "Laughter and its Influence" by Carly who submitted in the 18 & Under group. This is a short essay all about laughter and its affect on people. Carly writes about how laughter can be beneficial to your physical health as well as mental health. Carly mentions several personal stories from her family that make her laugh. The one that stuck out to me the most was that they watch Modern Family every wednesday. I especially liked this because my family does the same thing. And I'm sure we laugh as much as Carly says her family does. Carly's essay is very family based, which is expected since she is under 18 and therefore probably still lives with her parents. This essay was really fun for me to read because I could really relate to it. I, obviously, am under 18 and still live with my parents. And yes, I sometimes laugh harder with my family then with my friends. I agree with her that laughter has a great influence of people. So yes, I too believe in laughter.
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ReplyDeleteI chose the essay " I Am Jedi (And a Quarter Irish)" from the humor and laugh section. I looked through a couple of the humor and laugh ones but i decided on this one pretty much because it was shorter and sounded like it would be interesting. The essay was about a kid who goes with his dad to the re-release of star wars. He is surrounded by total nerds who welcome him into their little world of Trekkies and Paladines. " I was finally accepted as the eager little nerd I was." he writes " I felt like it was the only place i ever needed to belong to." Some elements of the personal essay include his use of inductive to deductive. He doesn't use and introduction that states what will be said in the essay though. I really liked the essay. I thought it was really well written and had an open, deductive ending that really makes you think about his idea stated in his conclusion " it's impossible to be alone when you're accepted by so many". Also his use of details really puts you in his shoes and you can picture the whole scene. Overall I thought it was really good!
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ReplyDeleteI decided to read an essay from the addiction section because it seemed interesting to me. I read "I Will Take My Voice Back" by Quique Aviles. Quique lives in Washington D.C. He is a crack addict and alcoholic and he is also a writer and a poet. Quique has gone through rehab 3 times, but he still can't escape his addiction for crack and alcohol. In the end, Quique believes that "crack can kill him, but in the end, communication and direct human contact will save him."
ReplyDeleteIf I were to put this story in the triangle of mania, mastery, and mystery, I would place it closer to mania and mastery than mystery. He uses inductive reasoning and gives a specific example to show a universal idea of how drugs, in this example crack, can easily ruin someone's life. I think that this tactic takes away the mystery in the personal essay, but it still makes it a well formed personal essay. He had a solid balance of mania and mastery of his subject, crack, but there was just a little mystery lacking.
I didn't feel like a could really relate to this essay because I don't know anyone who smokes crack, but that's why it is the most interesting to me. I like to read or hear about things that I am not familiar with.
The essay I chose was "Four Sisters in Life and Death" by Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow. This touching story was about four extremely close sisters named: Linda, Susan, Elynne, and Ivy. Unfortunately, the youngest sister, Ivy, died in a plane crash along with their father. She was only 16 years old. So, in her honor, her family created the Ivy Lynn Chaplik Humanitarian Award at her old high school.
ReplyDeleteMy author used inductive reasoning in her article. Right off the bat she stated that her youngest sister, Ivy, died in a plane crash with her father when she was 16 years old. Later on in the article, she talks about what a struggle it was at first and how you have to embrace it and be positive. This could be perceived as a universal problem because everyone deals with death and they know how painful and hurtful it is to get through. My author also uses a number of examples to exemplify her point. Here is an example; after Ivy's family created the Ivy Lynn Chaplik Humanitarian Award and is presented to someone, her spirit is still with them and she will never be forgotten.
My first reaction to this essay was sadness but, as I kept reading, I understood that the moral of the story. The moral is, no matter what happens to someone, they will always be stay with you in your heart and will never be forgotten. I thought this essay portrayed a powerful message about how a family dealt with the loss of someone they loved so dearly.
The summary I chose is called We’re All Different in Our Own Ways, found under the equality theme. The story is about a kid named Joshua who has Asperger’s Syndrome. This means he cares about topics obsessively, and can't help but talk about them to almost everyone he talks too. Although he can't help, kids still make fun of him for being obsessed with topics like Godzilla and Reptiles. He explains how cruel the children act and how he thinks everyone should be treated equally. An element this story uses is deductive reasoning. The story starts out by talking about how boring the world would be if everyone was the exact same, which is a known general fart, and then he uses his specific example of him being different due to Asperger’s Syndrome. My reaction to this essay was confused and sad how children could be that rude to a kid, knowing he has a serious disease. I know kids could be mean, but to the extent of making fun of a kid with Asperger’s Syndrome should be unheard of. I am glad this kid ignores it and knows that he is still smarter than the rest of the kids, even though what he is an expert on may differ from what they know.
ReplyDeleteI chose the essay "Be Cool to The Pizza Delivery Dude." This talks about how we need to make way for people (The Pizza Delivery Dude), then she gives reasons as to why we should do so.
ReplyDeleteAt the start of this essay, she opens with her point then she goes into her 4 points as to why, followed by her conclusion. Therefor this essay uses inductive reasoning.
By reaction to this is that i do agree with her. She got her points across and she made sure that the reader understood what she was saying. This didn't make me feel anything in particular, it just made me think about the social classes and how some people are less fortunate then others.
The essay I chose was called "Taking A Stand". It was underneath the "Prejudice" section and was about a boy who came out as gay and how his classmates reacted. The author talked about how at first the other kids talked about him and said horrible things about him behind his back, but later, as they got older, they said these things to his face. She was one of the only ones who defended him, and the classmates chose to tell her how it was not a big deal and that she should relax. She believed in tolerance and that standing up for others was important. I liked how the author gave some exposition about herself before she started the story, as it helped to set the stage for what she was about to talk about.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this essay, I immediatly thought of some people that I saw holding signs on the corner this weekend. The signs all said things such as "Homosexuals go to Hell" and other offensive and unneccesary anti-gay sentiments. They were from a church, and while I am also a Christian, I believe in tolerance and loving everyone, no matter what their orientation. It made me mad to see that display of prejudice, and I wish I could have given them a piece of my mind and stood up for those they were discriminating against, like the author of the essay I read.
I like to read stories that are told by people with different religious views than I have. I find different religious standings very interesting due to the fact that religions are all different approaches of explaining life itself. Although very contrary to my own beliefs, I picked to read an article called "There Is No God." Author Penn Jillette argues that not believing in God allows him to make good life choices because he knows that this one life is his only chance for happiness. He also says that he can't stand the idea that there is a God that doesn't deliver people through suffering, and he finds it easier to just think there isn't a God at all and suffering is just something unfortunate and random that we're meant to help each other through.
ReplyDeleteI actually read about five or six of these essays, and one thing that I think that they all have in common as far as being personal essays is they are all talking about something they believe and trying to make people understand and believe the same thing that they do. Personal essays often contain reflection that is meant to be some sort of universal truth. In this case, Jillette is trying to make people relate to the same feelings of suffering and offering an explanation of those things to get people to understand his point of view.
Although I do believe in God, I still found this article very interesting. I spend a lot of time thinking about how different religions are all explanations and why they all work in succeeding to make people believe their points. To some extent, I found reading this article somewhat sad though. The idea of there being a God seems comforting to me because it takes some of the pressure off this life having to be everything. The author came off a little bit unwilling to accept the idea of things that aren't tangible, and he seemed to be someone who couldn't believe in things he couldn't see or touch, so for me, that made the whole essay aimed at people with that same thinking.
I listened to Doing Things the Slow Way by Leah Ollman and it was about a mother in her kitchen doing everything by hand, like she doesn't buy the bread off the shelves but she makes her bread by hand and as she goes on they get better and better. It wasn't a humorous essay but more of a serious one, her speaking tone was very monotone adding a sad mood to the essay. When I heard this I instantly thought of the pizza I made this weekend because instead of buying a pre made pizza I bought everything separately. Once I was home I started to make the pizza; I spread the dough on the counter and made a crust and everything then I put the tomato sauce on the pizza I wasn't supposed to use the whole can but I did anyways, only because I was doing it my way. Next came the cheese, bacon,ham,and turkey which by the end covered the whole pizza you saw no tomato sauce and no cheese just meats. Then I threw it in the oven and when it came out it was delicious cause I had made it the long way...my way
ReplyDeleteI chose the essay Getting Lost by Madeleine. It was about a college student who got left behind at a train station in a foreign country. While the student, with another student to accompany her, sat at the train station, the girl thinks about how getting lost relates to her life and her beliefs. The whole essay was personal; it was filled with her thoughts on getting lost, and she uses this experience to tie into her beliefs in life. I really liked this essay because of what she said at the end "I realized being lost means finding what you really believe. I realized that Annie and I had the chance to disconnect from everything we knew, to look and see and soak in everything around us... that would tell a great story for a long time, and I realized that being lost is sometimes so much more meaningful than being found...I believe in not just looking, but seeing. I believe in living in the moment." I liked this because it reminded me of one of my mottos, which is don't let life pass you by. I also liked it because it speaks of a new beginning, which a lot of us wish we could have. I believe that if we are given chances like this, we should take them because they don't come around very often. This could better be explained using another motto of mine: don't take anything for granted, and if you're given something, try to make the best use out of it.
ReplyDeleteI believe in getting lost.
I chose to look at the section, good and evil. The personal essay I chose was called "The Tense Middle," by Roald Hoffman. Hoffman is a Polish Chemist, and survivor of the Holocaust. He discusses the extremes of good and evil, and how he believes the middle is the best place to be. He uses his personal experiences and occupation to discuss why being in the middle is best. The main argument he makes is that in the middle you can change, unlike being on the extreme end of good or bad in the middle their is room to move. This means you can try, succeed, or fail as many times as you wish to. Hoffman used deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. He used deductive by coming out and stating his belief immediately, telling us how he believes the middle is the best place to be on the scale of good and evil. He uses inductive because he uses his occupation of chemistry and his time during the Holocaust to indirectly prove that being in the middle between two extremes is the best place to be. This article stuck out to me because immediately I disagreed with it so I wanted to explore his argument. However, when I started listening my paradigm began to shift. I started seeing the world through his eyes. Once I did this i realized he was exactly right in his saying that the tense middle is the best place to be. You have room to do what you want without major consequences, you are not on the extreme side and forced to do things. Roald Hoffman makes a accurate argument saying that the tense middle is the best place to be on the scale between good and evil.
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