What is I?

On my first day of class for English 101: College Writing, I was nervous in the sense that I did not know what the class would be like. I was also nervous about what mean, stuck up English professor would be assigning me boring book reports this semester. I was not worried about the writing work since I went to a high school that stressed good writing. I already thought I was just about on the college level of writing and if I did all of the work I had to, I would get a good grade. I expected the classroom to be a room filled with lines of standard school desks with a blackboard and a teacher’s desk in the front. As it turned out, none of my expectations were correct. The classroom was made up of four lines of computers with a computer and a projection screen in front for the professor. After the professor explained the format of the class, I was shocked. I could not believe that we would be writing our assignments on our own blog. After I was given my first assignment, I was confused about the assignment and answered the prompt as if I was still a high school student. I soon figured out that in Marlen’s class I would be doing a lot of writing about myself. I was not used to this due to the fact that in high school we were told to not even use “I” in our writing. I then adjusted my writing for all future assignments and began to write about myself and my experiences.

For the first assignment, I was to find a picture and write a narrative essay about it while focusing on the sense of sight. I thought this was going to be easy, since I thought that I used my sense of sight more than any of my other senses combined In my prewriting for the essay, I wrote about how I love watching sports:

Watching major leaguers play a game of baseball at PNC Park was always special to me. PNC Park was always a nice place to see a baseball game because from every seat you could see the all that the ballpark had to offer. In left field the big yellow Roberto Clemente bridge always stood out in front of the entire downtown Pittsburgh skyline. The field was also memorable for having the greenest grass you have ever seen cut into a different pattern everyday. The atmosphere was amazing in addition to batters crushing baseballs into the air longer then I have ever seen, only to disappear over the outfield wall into the crowd.

For my essay I was going to write a story about something personal, but when I thought about my sense of sight, nothing really came to mind. Instead, I decided to write my essay based on a writing strategy that Marlen taught me in class. I was given a random picture and was told to just write about it. That was all, just ask questions and write. It turned out that I began to write a good narrative story this way:

I am standing under some trees by a lake. The people I am standing with are under the trees too gazing at the lake. Our town is on the east side of the lake. It is a quiet town during the day, since we only have about 30 citizens. Across the lake is another town. I have never been over there to meet those people. I wonder what kinds of people live over there. What do they do? Do they also have trees to lay under like our town? I can’t help but wonder if they are thinking the same things. Why is the woman in front of me alone? The other two women under the trees are standing next to someone, but she is alone.

After this prewriting session, I looked for a good picture that I would have a lot to write about. I found a picture of people at a little nightclub bar then began to ask questions and write. While writing the narrative essay I began to feel like a real author, which is weird because I always hated novels in high school. I realized after writing this that I had talent for narrative writing. I always thought I was an average writer and as for a career, I never had any intentions of writing for a living. My major is Computer Science and I have always thought of pursuing a career in that field. Computer Science is one thing that I understand and am good at. Using and learning computers is another primary use for my sense of sight. I wrote in my webblog, “Sight is crucial to working with and learning about computers. Sight allows me to see every diagram and problem my professor writes on the blackboard.” Without my sense of sight I would have a lot harder time learning about and using computers, and may have to consider an alternative for a career such as writing.

I analyzed my sense of taste next. I use my sense of taste all the time. Every time I eat I usually taste a different combination of flavors. Even between meals I use my sense of taste by eating mints or chewing gum. To prewrite for my essay on taste, I chose my favorite flavor, pizza:

Pizza has many different flavors in its combination of ingredients. The crust of the pizza gives it its texture and crunchiness. The crust does not have a very bold taste to it. In fact, the crust’s flavor is overshadowed by the rest of the pizza’s flavors. The red tomato sauce on top of the crust is one of pizza’s main flavors. The red tomato sauce gives the pizza an Italian flavor. Its similarity to marinara sauce makes me think of pasta and other Italian dishes when I bite into it. The texture of the sauce is almost the opposite of the crust. Tomato sauce is liquidy instead of hard crispy pizza sauce. The sauce has a strong taste in comparison to the rest of the pizza. With different herbs and spices mixed throughout the pizza, the sauce flavor stands out the most.

After describing all of these flavors I decided to write further on the flavor of pizza. Since I already described the taste of the several elements of pizza, I focused more on the history of pizza in my essay. My taste essay was mostly a research paper and because of this I found multiple quotes to back up my facts. This was not a very hard challenge because I had experience doing this before in high school using databases such as Ebsco Host and Magill on Literature. From writing this paper, I did not analyze a lot on my sense of smell in general, only on the history of pizza. Instead, I learned something about taste and culture:

There are many different types of pizza and flavors to go with it. This is because pizza has been influenced my many different cultures causing several changes and variations. All of this effort to alter the pizza for a culture or one’s personal preference is purely for the desire to create the pizza with the taste of the ultimate blend of bread, cheese and sauce.

Reflecting on this I think of how I influence my own flavor according to my culture to fit my personal preference. One of my eating habits is to put french-fries on any sandwich I am eating if they are available. Back in Pittsburgh there is a local famous sandwich chain called Primanti Brothers. There, every sandwich is topped with french-fries. This was so common that every time I eat a hamburger or any other type of sandwich I prefer to top it with french-fries. This habit often earns me weird looks by the friends I am eating with if they are not from or had never been to Pittsburgh and I would have to explain why I like to top by sandwich with french-fries. Anytime I am eating with someone from Pittsburgh they never think it is odd and may even complement me on it.

The next sense I examined was my sense of smell. I use my sense of smell everyday, and I consider it one of the more useful senses. I regard my sense of smell as my weakest sense. I noticed this because often I will be walking with someone else down a street and they say they notice that something smells bad wherever we are and I will not even notice anything until he/she says anything. My sense of smell, although very poor, is tied to my memory. I wrote in my prewriting what the smell of turkey is tied to:

For me, the smell of a freshly cooked turkey coming out of the oven triggers many memories of family Thanksgiving meals. Every Thanksgiving my family would have several relatives over for a big Thanksgiving meal. On those nights the smells did not stop at cooked turkey; there was stuffing, potatoes, corn, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and of course my favorite, pumpkin pie. All of these smells are locked in my memory along with big family dinners where we talk all night and get ready for the holiday season.

I had several other memories to write about, so I picked the most meaningful and wrote my smell essay on it. For me, some of my best memories were from my family summer vacations:

For me the smell of salt reminds me of ocean salt water. Every summer my family and I would take a family vacation to a beach. We went to beaches in Delaware, North and South Carolina, Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbeans. When we traveled to these places my senses would smell my car, if we were driving, a crowded airport, or airplane. When we arrived or were close to the beach I could always sense the smell of salt water carrying in the ocean breeze from a mile away. It was a sign to me that we were there and we were only moments from a town along the shore loaded with surf shops, seafood restaurants, and souvenir stands.

My sense of smell is very important in that it is tied to my memory. My sense of smell is also important in that it influences my sense of taste. I wrote in my prewriting how the sense of smell is a vital part of the sense of taste:
My sense of smell is also very important to me because the sense of smell influences the sense of taste. Taste is only able to sense if something is sweet, bitter, sour, or salty. When one chews on a piece of gum one may taste if it is a sweet or sour type of gum, but without the sense of smell one would not be able to taste the refreshing mint, bubble gum, strawberry, or any other type of flavor. I could not imagine losing a sense such as this, thus making my sense of smell such an important one.

I find that the sense of smell in relation to taste is the most useful part of the sense. This is because when the sense of smell is lost this also takes away a main part of the sense of taste. This is the way I commonly utilize my sense of smell, by smelling and tasting different types of appetizing food.

When we moved on to touch the next week we were required to bring in an item to experiment with touch in a touch workshop. I searched around my dorm room for such things and decided to bring in my laptop screen cleaning cloth. I would describe the cloth as a piece of soft fuzzy fabric with precisely cut edges. When I traded with a classmate, blindfolded, I felt a very light object with a weird texture was placed in my hand. I expected to feel something very soft, but instead I recognized the item as paper. Without my sense of sight, I could not see what was on the paper, but I was still determined to guess what type of paper it was. The paper was long and just a few inches wide and the sides were perfectly cut, like a grocery list. Then I observed the texture and I noticed that the paper felt like it was brand new, but had very small bumps that formed writing. I then concluded that it was a dollar bill.

For my prewriting assignment on sense of touch, I was given three articles to use as sources. I felt that this made the assignment easier because it gave me three definite things to write about. To complete the assignment I had to read all three articles and pick a quote from each one. Once I had three quotes, I wrote the assignment in the format of introducing, integrating, and then elaborating the quotes. Although, this assignment exercised the class’s research and quotation integration skills, I did not like it as much as the other prewriting assignments. When I was required to use three quotations in my prewriting I felt that I was not as free as previous assignments where I could write in any style I wanted.
After the prewriting assignment the class brainstormed by using free writing. To come up with an idea for the thesis statement of our touch essays, the class typed whatever came to mind about touch in the free writing exercise. After developing everything I was wrote about touch, I thought about how some senses are connected. Senses such as taste and smell are connected in that without one’s sense of smell one would not be able to taste several different tastes. I thought about this for my touch paper that the sense of touch might be connected or influenced by another sense. I compared the sense of touch to all four other senses. I found that the sense of touch and the sense of sight had the strongest connection.
Using the relationship of touch and sight as my thesis, I was ready to begin my essay on touch. First, I wrote about the valuable uses of touch. Touch can be used to observe objects in a similar way to sight. Using one’s sense of sight one can see if something is sharp or not. While using one’s sense of touch to observe an object, one can feel if the object is sharp or not.
Next, I thought of the situation in which a blind person experiences the sense of touch and sight. “Without the sense of sight to guide one in everyday life, one depends on his/her sense of touch. One’s hands are used as eyes to explore the world all thanks to the sense of touch.” I never thought about my sense of touch in that way before. I never considered my sense of touch my most important sense, but if I ever became blind I would undoubtedly consider the sense of touch as my most valuable sense.

In English 101 I learned how being touched is a necessity for humans and greatly effects the way we behave and communicate. Touch is a very important part of my culture and can vary greatly between cultures. “When two people touch it can mean several different things. If two people shake hands to meet for the first time, this is considered to be very formal. On the other hand, a quick high-five or hand slap/shake is perceived as casual or informal. A more personal or intimate type of touch such as kissing is reserved for close family or dating relationships.”
Similar to touch, sight or appearance can vary greatly between cultures. Appearance can be displayed in many different ways just like touch. “Formal attire usually consists of a tuxedo or a suit and tie. Casual dress has a wide variety of acceptable attire, anything such as T-shirts, jeans, or hoodies will be acceptable. Furthermore, one can also dress in attire such as lingerie to be perceived as intimate.”

The last sense I was to write about was hearing. I was excited to finally start studying the sense of hearing because it is the sense I enjoy the most. To explore our sense of hearing Marlen asked our class a number of questions that had to do with hearing and we wrote the answers down to make a poem. Of the sounds I thought of hearing were music, the atmosphere at sporting events, and typical classroom sounds such as wind or squeaking chairs. I posted this poem on my blog and used many of the sounds to write my prewriting homework later.

For my blogging assignment I tried to imagine and write about what I would miss if I lost my sense of hearing. The first thing that came to mind for me was music. Music is a big part of my life and listening to it is my favorite thing to in my free time. “Everyday I listen to music either on the radio, my ipod, or my computer. It is something I enjoy doing so much that I would not want to live in a world without music. To not be able to hear soothing melodies or catchy rhythms of my favorite bands and songs would be a great loss for me.” I enjoy and appreciate all kinds of music. My favorite genres of music are rock and jazz. Although, Hip-hop/Rap/R&B is also a close favorite. Country is probably my least favorite genre, but I do not shun this type of music. I still listen to country music if someone else likes it or if it is country music that is also had rock aspects. I think it is very odd that I am such a music fanatic, yet I could not play music to save my life. Since I was a child I have tried to play the violin, drums, and guitar. I never played any of those instruments very well and found that learning to play an instrument was very hard. I do not regret not being able to play an instrument. Instead, I listen to music often as a replacement and found other things that I learned a lot easier such as computers.

That week we had a hearing workshop and every student was to bring in a song to let another student listen to. I was very excited about this assignment because I got to search through my library of music and select my favorite song for someone to listen to. I chose Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child performed by Robert Randolph, whom plays a thirteen string tabletop guitar. When I listened to the first student’s music in the hearing workshop it sounded like a rock song, but had a new age style and was probably current day music that was not very mainstream. The second student’s music that I listened to was rap. In this song the beats changed when the introduction when into the main song. I enjoyed listening to different music so much his workshop, I decided to write my paper on the value of hearing.

For our hearing essay we were required to write using an essay type that we had not done before. I did not mind being restricted for this assignment because I can understand that students can not learn every aspect of college writing by only writing narrative essays. Before starting my hearing essay I wrote on my blog why I chose to write a persuasive essay, what I am going to write about, and how I am going to persuade the reader.

I chose the persuasive essay type because I have not done it yet, although I have written many persuasive essays before. Persuasive essays start with a strong statement, which the writer then tries to persuade the reader into sharing a similar viewpoint. In my essay I stated that hearing was the most valuable sense. I then provided evidence of this by explaining that hearing is heavily used for communication, imperative for listening to music, and an irreplaceable sense.

The first aspect of the value of hearing I wrote about was communication. Communication by hearing is a vital tool that humans use everyday:

The most important use of hearing is communication. Hearing is responsible for half of the way humans verbally communicate. Consequently, without hearing there would be no use for verbal speech. Humans would be forced to use alternate methods of communication such as sign language or how non-audible animals communicate. The ability to hear greatly effects our way of life by means of communication.

The next feature of the value of hearing I wrote about was my favorite, music. Not only do I listen to music in my free time for entertainment, I also listen to music to put myself in a better mood. Studying Intro to Music at Indiana University of Pennsylvania this semester has attributed to my music knowledge. In MUHI 101 “I have learned about the origin, evolution, and complexities of music and how it has influenced man throughout time. Without being able to hear music one would be without one of the primary arts enjoyed by man for thousands of years.”

Lastly, one of my favorite sounds to hear is that of my hometown of Pittsburgh. When I think what the streets of Pittsburgh sound like back home, “I am overwhelmed with the sound of people walking back and forth along with cars, buses, and other automobiles and an occasional car horn. In the city, one may also be at a stadium featuring their local team. Whenever the home team scores, the stadium is filled with the crowd’s loud cheer.” The sounds of a busy Pittsburgh street are more noticeable because I grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh where the atmosphere is always quiet.
To conclude my last essay I presented one more argument to the reader. I tried to convince the reader that hearing is the most valuable sense by illustrating a situation in which someone becomes blind.
When someone looses their sense of sight, it is true that they can no longer see certain elements of this world such as colors. To counter this, in this situation, one substitutes his/her sense of sight for their sense of touch. A blind person may not be able to see a tree with his/her eyes, but he/she can see that if it is thick or thin, tall or short, or rough or smooth bark with his/her hands.

I then stated the importance of hearing by showing its how it is not replaceable, “Just the opposite is true for the sense of hearing. Once one’s sense of hearing is fully lost there is no substitute. None of the other four senses could replace the phenomenon of hearing sound; this is why hearing is our most valuable sense.”

After writing these five essays on my five senses, I better understand how I am a part of and influenced by my culture. When thinking of only my culture I would not have realized certain behavior and customs. I only truly saw how different the rest of the world and their cultures are once I compared them to mine. “What is I?” is a question that at first I thought was not easily answered. At first I thought that I was that word that we were not allowed to use in formal papers for English class. After this semester of English 101 I have a much better idea of what I is. I to me is the mixture of all of my likes and dislikes formed from how I interpret them through my senses from my experiences in my culture.