#5. Modes of Writing

These are the modes of writing. They are in no particular order, but you should know that already if you are in Decker's class.

1. (Process Analysis) You wake up, you eat breakfast, and you go on your merry way. By the time you reach lunch, your body has used the energy that was created by breakfast and you are hungry again. This is when you typically eat lunch and refuel your body. Hunger comes about when your body uses up the energy created by the food you intake, and when your stomach becomes empty.

2. (Narration) My second block class is math. This is the class that I have right before lunch, so it is right about that time that I hit the wall. I am hungry, I have no energy, and I lose focus. Most of this is caused by me being hungry. If I can have something to eat, I wake up some and can focus more. Once I run out of the energy that my body gets from breakfast, I just sort of shut down. But after that class I have lunch. Once I eat lunch, I have energy, I am awake, and I can focus in class.

3. (Definition) Hunger is the feeling we get when we have digested the food we have eaten and our stomachs are empty. Our bodies require food to keep working, and so when we run out our bodies give us a notice to get us to eat. Once you eat, the feeling of hunger will go away, and will not come back until your body needs more food.

4. (Argument/Persuasion) Many people do not feel that hunger is a good thing. They associate it with people who do not have enough food, who are in poverty, and who struggle to survive. This is the connotation, however, not the denotation. Hunger is your body telling you to go and get some food so that you can get energy for the day to day activities that you need to do. Without hunger, how would we know when to refuel our bodies?

5. (Cause and effect) Why do we get hungry? Once we get up, we eat breakfast. This introduction of food to our systems kickstarts our bodies metabolism and gets us going for the day. It gives us energy, wakes us up, gets our minds working, and gets us ready for what all we need to accomplish. Part of this increased metabolism involves digesting your breakfast faster, which in turn will make you more hungry later. This just means that your body is using energy, and needs a little more.

6. (Description) The bell rings. You rush out the door into the hall, following the hoard of people to the cafeteria. As you descend the stairs, the smell of the lunchroom hits you all at once. Your stomach growls, and you realize just how hungry you really are. You wait in line, with the people surrounding you. After you get your food, you sit at the table and enjoy whatever food the school decided to provide. By the time lunch is over, hopefully your hunger has been abated and will not be a problem until it is time for a snack or dinner.

7. (Comparison/Contrast) Hunger is usually associated with lack of energy, but they are not the same thing. Both may lead to lack of focus, feeling out of it, and not wanting to do anything. But hunger is caused by your body having digested all of the food in your system, while lack of energy is caused by your using up of the available energy in your system. Hunger usually causes lack of energy, but they are not the same thing.

8. (Example) Hunger, in essence, is your body's way of telling you that it needs more food to provide energy for its daily processes. Growling stomachs, feeling of emptyness, lack of energy, lack of focus, all of these are symptoms of hunger. Hunger is your body trying to get you to give it more energy so that these things do not happen.

9. (Classification) Hunger is not like a switch, where you either are or are not. You can be a little hungry, or starving, and everything in between. When you are just a little hungry, you may have a feeling of hunger, maybe a growling stomach. But the more hungry you get, the more intense these feelings get until you can feel sick and not be able to do anything.

10. (Division of Analysis) Hunger is made up by feelings of an empty stomach, thoughts about food, a desire to eat, and a potential lack of energy. All of these parts come together to make you realize you are hungry, and can all be remedied by having something to eat.

# 3 (and #4). Taking a Wrong Turn

During the summer, not all that long after I got my license, I decided to drive myself and one of my friends to Shady Oak Beach in Hopkins. I did not have my own car yet, so I resorted to using my dad's Expedition, which always makes me feel like I'm driving a tank. I was already nervous, and my lack of directional skills did not make things any easier. I knew that I needed to take Highway 494 to Highway 7, and from there go to Shady Oak Road and follow that up to the beach. What I did not know, however, was which way to turn onto Highway 7. You see where I am going with this.

While driving, I saw the turn for Highway 7. I did not think about which way I was going, or which way the beach was, and I ended up making a wrong turn. I had never driven to that beach, and the last time I was even there was a few years ago, so how was I supposed to know which way to turn?

I knew that the turn off for Shady Oak road was soon, or at least it would have been if I was going the right way, so after a couple minutes on the road I started getting a nagging suspicion that something was wrong. As I saw it, there were three possibilities: One, I had made a wrong turn and was driving away from where I was trying to go. Two, the road and beach had disappeared from the face of the earth completely, or Three, I had not gotten there yet. I figured the first was the most likely, but I decided to keep going just in case it was farther than I thought it was. Besides, I had only had my license for two months by that time and driving on my own was still a novelty to me. As we went down the open road, we started seeing less buildings, malls, and other evidence of an urban setting and started seeing more farmland.

I was getting pretty sure that I was going the wrong way, but I wasn't ready to admit my error. Once we reached a sign for Victoria, I knew I had no choice besides pulling off the road into a driveway and breaking down and calling for directions.

As it turned out, I went west onto Highway 7 when I should have gone east. If I had gone east, I would have only had to go a mile before reaching Shady Oak road. Going west, I ended up 15 miles away in the wrong direction. While I was driving the wrong direction, besides making a memory that I would eventually write about in a blog, I also learned a lesson about driving: "Always make sure that you know where you are going and how to get there." Now, whenever I am going somewhere new, I make sure I have turn by turn directions there and back.

The Humor of the Unexpected

I find that the things that are unexpected in life are usually some of the funniest. Be it the Motivator on Wipeout sending a hesitant contestant into the water below, someone running and all of a sudden hitting something of falling, or just a random comment that no one saw coming, these never fail to amuse.
When I hang out with my friends, some of the most random and unexpected things happen. This is why I have so much fun with them. For example, just before the homecoming game, we were hanging out at my friend Emilie's house when Jon said something about "the ovens are going to eat us." Nothing led up to it, and nothing would have suggested that he was going to say anything like that. This is what made it so funny. Another example, and it pains me to say that I was the victim of this one, is when we were at McDonald's eating ice cream. We were sitting in our regular booth when Lily asked Madison to record something. I look over and Lily is counting down and then slams into me. Next thing I know, I am sliding off the booth bench and hitting the floor.
Even though it happened to me, I still found it really funny. It was just so unexpected and out of the blue, how can you not laugh?
I think the reason that I, along with a large portion of people my age, find random and unexpected things funny is because everything else around us is so structured. We wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, go to class, get homework, take tests, go home, do the homework, eat dinner, and go to sleep. The next day, it all starts again in what feels like an endless cycle with some weekends and breaks thrown in occasionally. We know for the most part what to expect, and when things are happening that when something comes along and is not like that we just have to laugh.
America's Funnies Home Videos is another thing that a lot of people my age enjoy. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that the funniest videos are where everything seems normal and the all of a sudden BAM, something comes out of nowhere and hits someone or trips them up, or scares them. These are the funniest for the same reason. When something random and unexpected happens, it disrupts the redundant cycle of our lives and at the least puts a smile on our faces.

#1 The Benefits of Writing

There are several benefits to regular writing. One of the first ones that comes to mind is that you can put your thoughts down on paper or on a screen. This can help you to gather your thoughts. When you look back at it later, seeing what you were thinking can help you gather and organize your thoughts. Writing also gives you a way to vent your thoughts and feelings on any given subject. Letting things out will make you feel better than just keeping it all bottled up inside. The more you write, the clearer you will think. If you think about what you are thinking about more often, then you will be more self aware.

Writing is like any other activity. The more you do it, the better you will be at it. If you never write, when you do finally write it will not be very good. Likewise, if you write often, then you will be better at it. Writing is not just putting words on paper or typing it onto a screen. It is about being able to make sense of what you are thinking enough to be able to put a coherent story together. It is about being creative, or learning to put information you find in your own words. Basically, it is about thinking. The more you write, the more you will think, and the smarter you will be.