After
looking at the blogs I chose as the best written and most interesting, I found
a common theme of irrationality and stubbornness, probably not the best traits
to highlight. However, I consider “This One Goes Out to Anna Witkin: My Enemy
and Friend” my most well written blog. In it, I focus on my evolving friendship
with Anna Witkin over the years and how as naïve fourth graders we absolutely
hated each other. Particularly, I analyze not only my slightly ridiculous past stubbornness
but also the implications on a global scale, referring to the Berlin Wall and
similar walls in history that divided people. I like the writing in the blog
the most because I connected a reading for class with my life and the world in
general while addressing a serious issue, ignorance, with lighthearted
examples. As I read over past blogs, I recalled earlier blogs I wrote over the
summer and during the beginning of the school year. Immediately, I knew I would
not pick them. In all of my earlier blogs, I stayed in my comfort zone and focused
on the literature, with not a single reference to my own life. I think my blogs
became increasingly better written once I decided to expand my writing and analyze
not just the books and poems, but also their implications in the real world and
my life. I began my focus on more interesting, personal anecdotes, rather than straightforward
analysis paragraphs, in my blog entry “The Patient Wait.” I also chose it as my most interesting blog, due
to its slightly odd, disturbing subject, as I discuss how my desire for a baby
sister caused me to believe my brother would become a girl. So, naturally, I dressed
him up as one in the meantime. The week of the blog, I read Edgar Allan Poe’s story
“The Tell-Tale Heart” for English class, a story that never ceases to creep me
out. Yet I somehow ended up comparing my childhood self to its obsessed, murderous
narrator, which only further highlights the “interesting” nature of my
reflection. I also knew I had to choose it as the most interesting because of
how I initially hesitated to post it. Then I thought about class discussions this
semester in English, other students’ blogs, and this year’s novels full of
disturbed, slightly crazy characters, and I felt much more comfortable posting
it. I realize my life hardly appears the most bizarre, even just within the
world of AP English. My favorite comments also all dealt with other people’s
own interesting experiences, but Katie Widman’s comment on my blog about walls
and my previous hatred for Anna stood out. She shared how she hated Mairin after
Mairin once cut her in line in first grade, but she later overcame her grudge
when she discovered they both loved Bratz dolls. Katie also noted how easily
children put up and break down barriers and I agree with her about the easiness
in which children determine right and wrong and make decisions accordingly. In
some ways, I miss the days when the most stress and drama in one’s life dealt
with someone cutting in line, but I realize that as people grow older they also
tend to realize the pointlessness of such grudges and barriers. Despite the changes
people make, however, reading other people’s blogs and comments on my own posts
makes me realize that they still have crazy, odd parts to them…and I only know the
parts they choose to willingly post on the internet. Even after going to school
with people for over ten years, they can still surprise and amuse me with stories
of random obsessions and hobbies and such admissions certainly make me feel much
more normal in comparison.
