This week, my personal favorite, student-produced essay is “Hooked.” The other two responses are good, but they don’t evoke the feelings and memories YZF93 (author’s questionable choice for a name) was able to establish. The essay is about YZF93’s remarkable days of exploring and fishing. Now, I am not a big fisher, only have a few times, but that’s not the point of the response. It’s the feelings that matter, the feeling of finally passing that “dead end street,” on a “Walmart bike” not knowing what’s to come. (For the record, I also purchased a Walmart bike) It’s the feeling that I most connected with. Reading paragraph by paragraph, all these memories came across in my mind, all the things I used to do and how much fun I had doing them. Things like Pokémon cards, cops and robbers, and tag were what I lived for. I did those things every second of every day and yet, I loved every second of it. The feeling of excitement when I saw a new Pokémon card or the feeling of not being “it” and reaching “the base” were my main goals, and now they seem so silly. Reading “Hooked” not only gave me something to do with my time, but also brought back memories that I completely forgot. It’s not the words I connected with, but the interpretation.
*Painting with Neil [and the Sahand]
Soon after reading the three- student produced essays, I realized when it came to imagery and establishing a perfect scenery, there was no challenge. “Painting with Neil” took the gold . . . and the silver and the bronze. The details and emotions expressed throughout the full two and half pages make the reader feel like, none other than Neil, himself. Sure most of us don’t speak the way he does, “Boy, I’m parched,” or continuously travel through mood swings, but we all can relate to him. I mean who enjoys a “burnt hot dog [that] doesn’t have enough ketchup,” I know I don’t. I also know that several of us have to deal with not having “an insanely late curfew” making us miss the best parts of the night or game and then having to hear about it through a friend who doesn’t comprehend the fact that we’re not listening. What makes S.L.’s essay different from the rest is that you not only can picture the soccer game and each and every event that takes place, but you get to know the main character, Neil Rajdev, a true- heroic fighter when it comes to the “sophomores.” Now the reader gets two perspectives of the breathtaking game, one from a random third party and one through Neil’s eyes. After reading “painting with Neil” three more times, slowly grasping each and every word used, I recognized that it is so beautifully written essay that I picture it being used as an example for years and years to come.
*Ground Zero: No longer Black and White
Through Suzanne Berne’s descriptions, Ground Zero amplifies the fact that there is always more to see. There is no argument that September 11, 2001 was and still is one of the United State’s most horrific days. For most people, September 11th was just another normal routine Tuesday. Some people went to work, some went to school, and some even went to their birthday celebrations. Having been such an ordinary day, no one would have expected for life all around them to turn completely black and white. On September 11, 2001, the United States of American faced a series of terrorist attacks killing more than three thousand sons and daughters. And because of the camera crews, not only did New York residents have to experience the pain, but so did the rest of the world as everyone, together, watched three aircraft crash into the twin towers, destroying everything in sight. Today, what’s left after the attack is now known as Ground Zero and it may look like a boring construction sight, but Suzanne Berne and the families of those who lost their lives would think differently.
In Berne’s first couple paragraphs, she describes the scenery and how “people from everywhere” came to Ground Zero to pretty much stare at nothing. “Nothing” as she puts it “is what it first [looks] like.” Suzanne Berne states how after adjusting your eyes, “nothing becomes something more potent” and how such a simple construction sight with cranes, bulldozers and jackhammers is really a “great bowl of light [that seems] spacious and grand.” Ground Zero is empty, but after looking at it for more than a second, “the absence begins to assume a material form, when what is not there becomes visible.” Ground Zero is a space not known for what it is, but rather for what it was. Berne describes how all of a sudden the twin towers are brought back to life and how that heartbreaking day is repeated all over again, having to stare “devastation” eye to eye, “superimposing those terrible images onto the industrial emptiness right in front.” Suzanne Berne continuously states how there is more to see within Ground Zero and she does so using short, simple paragraphs making it easier to understand and actually feel the way she did in Manhattan. Suzanne Berne’s essay, Ground Zero, not only proves that there is always more to see, but it also reflects on how even though over three thousand people died, they will be never be forgotten. After reading Suzanne Berne’s essay, Ground Zero, to me, seems not like a tourist attraction, but more of a black and white picture where people come to add their own color.
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