Friday, October 25, 2013

Engilsh Week Three Essay

The Silver Lining

     Most people would agree that a heart attack is a terrible thing. And it certainly is, as it might kill you and if it doesn't it will change your life significantly. But in Lerher's case in his book A Bus of My Own, some of the changes were for the better.
      The first thing he did when he woke up was to make lists and organize his life, which certainly is a good thing. Anyone can benefit from a little more organization and coherence. He decided that he needed to pursue his ambition of writing fiction more avidly, and he also resolved to be more serious about his collection of bus memorabilia.
      Another change that might be seen as not very enjoyable, but certainly beneficial, is the change in his diet. His former diet consisted solely of comfort foods and fast food, which was probably a proponent in his heart attack in the first place. He had to change his diet to far more healthy foods, which he did not enjoy eating quite so much but it probably improved his overall health in the long run.
      Before his heart attack, he was a heavy smoker. In fact he described it as being an important aspect of his life, and after his heart attack he never smoked again. Luckily this was not a reluctant change; it simply never crossed his mind once during or after his recovery and what was once a main ritual in his daily life just faded away. This was clearly a good thing.
      A heart attack is a very bad thing, and changes are not always good, but these three things certainly changed Lerher's life for the better.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

English week two essay

Three Essential Stories

    If there were three stories that I would absolutely put in my auto biography, they would be (so far, as obviously my life is not over and there will be many more stories to come) my fourth birthday, the move from New York to Ohio, and the death of my brother Max.
    My fourth bithday I feel is an important story because that is when I got my first LEGO set, and building with LEGO bricks has been an very large part of my life so far. I have since then collected quite a large amount of LEGO bricks, and thanks to that one set I got on my fourth birthday, I have taken a very big interest in designing and building things.
    The move to Ohio from our old home in New York is important because it was rather like staring over -- I didn't see it at the time, but looking back at it, we only stayed in New York after we moved from New Mexico for about four years, and I wasn't old enough to remember moving from New Mexico. So we only stayed in New York a relatively short while, moved to Ohio, rented a house there but only stayed a year, and then moved to our current home and we haven't moved since. it has been about eight years and it doesn't look like we will move again.
    Finally, the death of my brother Max is the most important, probably fro pretty obvious reasons. It was probably the most painful days of my life, and it came upon me then that it had seemed impossible that my unassailable older brother could be killed, that such a travesty could happen to our own family, and I realized that anyone can and will die and that we should take nothing for granted.
    I cannot say that I will not have any more important stories, indeed I hope I do live to see many a tale, but out of all the life I have seen I would pick these three as most essential.