The setting is Williston, North Dakota. It was early 2014, still winter. I woke up at my usual time, 5:30 A.M. I started driving at about 6 A.M. in a foot of fresh snow that had fallen over night and had not yet been plowed. I drove my twenty-one mile journey at about twenty miles per hour. While driving, my panic levels went up and down depending on who was surrounding me. Because if I’m driving on a completely empty road, the conditions hardly phase me. There was one point of the drive that I remember very clearly.

A truck driver passed me and the process of doing so sent the snow from the road onto my windshield. By the time the windshield wipers had pushed this fresh coat of snow off, I my trajectory had changed. I was going down the road at about a forty-five degree angle. I screamed, “No!”, hit my steering wheel, and freaked out for a few seconds. After calming down, I started using maneuvers to get control back of my car. I started drifting left and right, less and less each time until I was finally going straight down the road again. Thankfully I had practiced drifting in the snow recreationally, so I knew how to regain control after having lost it.

The question is: “In paragraph 5, Flora says, ‘Our brains have a built-in hot-or-not meter that never stops gathering data.’ Is this statement true for you? Explain.”

For me, this statement is true. We are always subconsciously measuring how attractive someone is, especially when we’re single and looking for someone to date. Even when not actively looking, we will always notice when a person is attractive. We each have our own “hot scale” and where we place people on it. We might not consciously think about where they would be on that scale, but we definitely gauge them. I once knew a man who said, alluding to admiring the beauty of a woman to whom he wasn’t married, “I can admire the beauty of the mountain, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to climb said mountain.” This is true, but that admiration can sometimes easily lead to more than admiration.

I chose this section because I like to learn a bunch of random facts, and when I read the first paragraph of this article, it peaked my interest. I’ve always thought that people who are more attractive (specifically women) get special treatment, and that was in the opening paragraph of this article. So I thought I might learn the science behind it and see why and how it happens. Also, at the stage I’m at in life, dating is one of the main pursuits. So I also thought I might clue in on some tips to a more successful dating life. Because, let’s face it, physical attraction is important in a relationship.

Before reading this excerpt, I knew very little about the Civil War. I obviously learned about it in grade school, but I have long since forgotten the majority of the information. I knew that the south supported slavery and the north didn’t. I also knew that there was a man named Ulysses Grant that was involved with the war.
However, I didn’t know how involved he was, who his opponent was, what kind of leader he was, or his greatest accomplishment. He was involved because he was a general for the North. His opposing general was Robert E. Lee, who represented the south. He was a strong-willed, self-reliant, look-to-the-future type of leader. His biggest accomplishment was the ability to turn war into peace and start America on the path toward reunion.

I don’t think the citizens of Jefferson county were justified in suing the county. They were probably feeling sad, angry, confused, and a plethora of other emotions and those emotions were what was causing them to sue. But, looking at it from an outside perspective, the way the police responded to the situation was the way they should’ve. It was “by the book.” Yes, maybe the book needed to be rewritten, but how would they have known that had there not been some event to show it? Columbine was that event; and the book was rewritten.

1.) By “The rejected waste of the society,” I think the author is trying to say that the majority of society looks down on the homeless. This is often with either pity or disdain. As seen in paragraph 14, instead of trying to help solve the problem of homelessness, they’re sometimes shunned and ejected from places they seek refuge. Something similar is seen in paragraph 17. They’re called “undesirables” and “trash.” This is how most people see the homeless, and it’s heartbreaking.

2.) I would say my biggest fear is failure. Just last night, I was doing some last minute studying for a complex and difficult biology exam. I felt like I didn’t know or understand all the material and this caused me to go into panic mode. I kept thinking I was going to fail the exam, then the course, and that everything would just be downhill from there. I got into the testing center, did a quick once-over of the test, and my panic got worse. There were many questions I had no idea what the answer would be.

5.) Many people look down on the homeless because they believe that the homeless put themselves into that situation, deliberately or otherwise. Also, once homeless, many think the homeless don’t do anything to leave that situation, and that may be true for some, but definitely not all. Some have simply fallen on hard times and not been able to get back up yet, and they may need help to do so. I would suggest we all try to think about what it would be like in that situation. Then think about what we would like others to do to help us and do that to help them.

As stated in my title, this blog will be about what I’m going to base my narrative essay on. Without really having to think, I know that my most influential experience was my two year service mission in Argentina. If there’s any time period that I learned most from, my mission is it. So, I’m going to write a little about what I learned and how I grew.

Chapter four starts off with an explanation of the settings that a college student needs to write. I was intrigued by the box labelled “Kinds of Academic Writing” because I didn’t realize that even though I’ve used the majority of those, I never organized them like that. Looking at each of the possibilities, I began to think about the different ways I write for different assignments and it was interesting to me. I really liked the format starting on page 93 of writing a specific thing (i.e. a personal response, summary, critical analysis), the purpose of writing it, and the guidelines. It will be a quick and easy resource to refer back to. Obviously, taking notes and annotating while reading is important, but there are a few ideas on page 113 that I thought were very interesting. The section “Rewriting Lecture Notes and Class Readings in New Ways” has quite a few ideas of how to increase retention and I plan on trying a few of them in the future.

Chapter five is all about description. I enjoy reading the most when the author makes a good use of description, and with that example, I try to be descriptive in my writing so it isn’t boring. The part I found most useful in the chapter was the section “Supporting Details” starting on page 124. It goes through objective and expressive details, how to describe the senses with words, how to replace common words with more descriptive words, and how to effectively use similes and metaphors. That whole section will be great to use in the future. I didn’t really find anything that I would dub as not useful.

I’ve never been one to really enjoy reading or writing. I wouldn’t say I’m unskilled at either, it just doesn’t really draw my attention like my other hobbies. However, the books I have read I thoroughly enjoyed. I would say since about sixth grade I’ve been a big fan of the Harry Potter series and I’ve read each of the books multiple times. Other than those books and other books I was required to read for various classes, I haven’t read much. But, starting last semester, I’ve started reading more. I found a few books that interest me and I read them when I have a good amount of free time I can dedicate to them. They’re mostly books about learning for math and science students or leadership books, but I enjoy reading them.

Writing is a different story. I’ve never written as a hobby. I’ve only ever done it for a class really. It’s not really something I enjoy doing, mostly because I don’t see myself as a very creative person and I find it quite hard to start writing. But once I start, I can write until I run out of material, and, depending on the subject, I can write quite a bit. I’m hoping to turn writing from something I would rather avoid to something painless.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton