Although it is extremely late to be posting a blog post about an essay that I have already completed, I feel although it was still important to speak my mind about it. For my food essay, I chose to speak about my relationship with my father through the use of salty French fries. Crazy, isn’t it? I actually had no idea where I was going with this, after all I am a last minute type of person and thought of this topic last minute if I am being honest. But it is okay to be imperfect, and I got a good grade out of it so i’ll take it! Anyways, this food essay took me to a place that I haven’t been in YEARS. It is different to do something than to talk about it, and writing the relationship between my father and I struck some chords not gonna lie. My and my father used to bond over French fries, however I compared salty French fries to the salty relationship my father and I now share. Building on to this essay was a little difficult because I didn’t want to ramble on and talk about my relationship and loose focus on the idea of food and its effect on one’s memory. Overall, this was a great experience overall and by far my favorite essay topic to write about.

In Morgan Spurlock’s film “Super Size Me!”, it shows how unhealthy fast food can really be.Fast food is so advertised across the United States because of its flamboyant and eye-grabbing retail. In the film, Spurlock expresses the point that us Americans are so reliant on fast food, mainly because it’s cheap, has a satisfying taste to most, and you get your money’s worth. Spurlock created this documentary to point out the amount of lawsuits against fast food chains because of the harmful effects it has on people. He wanted to experiment eating fast food everyday, three times a day, for a month, to see how it will affect his body and health.

Although we all struggle watching him do this to his body, he is fully aware of the extreme measures he is taking and the toll that going to take over his body. The rules he gave himself was to eat all meals and leave absolutely NOTHING left. Also, he was not allowed to eat anything else but McDonalds, including water. Lastly, by the end of the experiment he had to have one of everything on the menu. Oh yeah and if asked to supersize he must say yes, but he cannot ask to do so. During this dreadful experiment, he gained 25lbs and it took almost 9 months to lose it all. Although his experiment was very far fetched, it highlighted the flaws in the fast food industry and how unhealthy it really is. Easy and cheap foods aren’t the healthiest! The price you pay is the outcome you get.

Angelina Duran & Rosa Edwards

*Rosa’s writing is italicized

H. is simultaneously a story about learning about what heroin really means as a concept and dealing with a family member who is recovering from an addiction to it. Specifically, Sarah Resnick’s uncle ended up in a shelter in New York as a result of him being a recovering addict and long term methadone user. As mentioned, this story is centered around her dealing with her uncle.

The essay goes in depth on the topic of safe injection sites, something that’s highly debated in Seattle (there is currently an effort to make them a reality, as of now there’s only safe syringe exchange sites). There is a lot of evidence to suggest that they do more harm than good, and that much of the resistance can be explained by current societal stigma that’s not backed by evidence.  Also, as I read this essay I noticed that i took a lot of pauses, hence there was a lot of paragraphs. But the point I am trying to make is that these pauses are somewhat significant in portraying this story. The way the author tells her journey with her uncle and the events in her life in order and with the dates involved really shows the connection she has with this pandemic. It draws my attention even more. Also, as I read I noticed that there was a rise in how many people were dying from this pandemic.

One point the author makes is that no one really knows what addiction is, and the “exceptions” sometimes outweigh the “rules”

A quote that stood out to me is “Yet even after all this time, I still find that certain ideas I’d taken for granted throughout adolescence and early adulthood, ideas about what a good society tries to make available for its citizens , are here not to be taken for granted”. This grabbed my attention because it is true for everything in life. When we are younger we never take anything as serious as we should, however as we get older these situations that were taken for granted are now situations that cannot be fixed.

This essay hit home for me in a major way because of my experience with this topic, and I can see a lot of H.’s behaviors reflected in that of my aunt, who is recovering herself. Near the end there is a character named Judith whose son died of methadone overdose (a drug used to get people off of heroin). She is cynical and looks at methadone users as people still trapped in the heroin mindset. She suggests the author cut her uncle off, he is taking from her and not giving anything in return. I used to think like Judith, and I think that mindset stems from anger about the way things turned out. In absence of anything substantial to focus our anger on in these cases we sometimes turn it toward the very people who were taken from us, how could they let themselves get sucked in? Why did they not utilize the help we offered? Why did they start using in the first place? We don’t understand these things, it’s frustrating, but we need to keep (or sometimes regain) our compassion for the people we love. My aunt will never be the same as she was before, she’ll always be kind of weird, in a fog. She is not any less deserving of the emotions we feel toward others though. Somebody who smokes and develops cancer is not looked at in the same way, and that says something about the stigma surrounding drug use.

I am interested in doing my podcast about a manslaughter case. This case is about a man who went about his day a work on a hot summer day, however he left his 1- year old twins in the car. He didn’t realize he left them in there until after he got back in his car, when he saw them dead in the backseat. I want to focus my podcast on this case, however I wanted to see how other people felt about this. This man was claimed to be an innocent man, however, was his actions didn’t show it. Some people, like me, find it hard to believe that he thought he dropped his children off at day care when he didn’t . I feel as though there is no way a parent would forget something as major as this. I will derive my information from past cases, articles, and search up interviews about the case to role play into my podcast.

Based off the feedback I’ve received from Matt L., I finally found a sense of what direction I want to go in with my borrowed memoir on my grandfather. I had a hard time latching on to the order of events I wanted to go in, and I am currently configuring what deep moments I want to put in after each other minor moment. I am getting there, surely but shortly !!!

For my borrowed memoir, I would really like to touch base on my connection to my grandfather as well as his condition. Growing up without my dad, my grandfather has pretty much stepped up as my fatherly figure. I stick to him like glue. Not too long ago, when my grandfather was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, he told me his wishes. He wished to be cremated and have his ashes thrown into the ocean. Till this day, I wonder why the ocean? But it all makes sense now. My grandfather loves to go fishing. He owns a boat, which he revamps every month, even during the winter. Fishing something that me and my grandfather always did, even though I hate the smell. I realized that then ocean is where he can breathe, where he can be free. The ocean can take you to many places, and I interpret his need to be in the ocean so he can be free and roam where ever he wants. He is currently undergoing chemo, but it hasn’t been going that well. Me and him are so connected, its almost like I can feel his pain. It brings me to tears every time I think of the idea of him being gone. A quote that I would like to focus on is from Lopate’s reading. He says “An essay needs conflict, just as a short story does. Without conflict, your essay will drift into static mode, repeating your initial observation in a self-satisfied way”. I feel like this can be implemented into my memoir because cancer is a drastic conflict. I would like to incorporate how cancer is not treatable, but I want to gear it more towards his wishes to have is ashes thrown in the ocean and his love for fishing and incorporate miner details of our bond.

“Kitchen” by Gates, really intrigued me. I felt connected in a lot of ways although I do not represent the same ethnicity. With that being said, I know the feeling of always wanting straight hair. As a child my mom would always tell me, “Angelina, you have such beautiful curls, why do you insist on straightening every week?” or “Angelina, you are a follower”. In this essay, Gates speaks about his mother being a hairstylist and the concept of the reference of “kitchen”, which is located in the the back of the neck. In the area grew up, I wanted my hair to be like everyone else’s….straight. As I grew up, Ive learned to embrace my hair and accept it for what it is. And guess what ? I LOVE my hair. Obsessed actually. Apart from my obsession with my curls, a part in this essay that stuck out to me was when Gates says “The kitchen was permanent, irredeemable, irresistible kink”(293). It made me think of this: no matter what type of hair you have and no matter how many times you want to change it, your true hair is interchangeable. Sure, you can change its color and length and style, but your hair will always be apart of who you are and no one can change that.

Hampl’s rational in creating the vignette at the beginning of her essay she was attempting to write a memoir, however she didn’t tell the truth about the events that occurred in her life because she needed a first draft. She says, “My narrative self(the culprit who invented) wishes to be discovered by my reflective self, the self who wants to understand and make sense of a half-remembered moment about a nun sneezing in the sun.” In the beginning of the essay, Hampl spoke some truth about her life events, however she needed to recognize what her draft was about and what it wanted, not necessarily what she wanted.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.