TOW #19: A Letter to Junior Year

     Witty, humorous, and clever, GILLIAN HORN writes a creative letter to her junior year. As a 16 year-old myself, it is easily relatable with the audience targeted specifically to other 16 year-olds, making current day allusions that only high school kids today would understand. She mentions Regina George from the famous movie Mean Girls that we all know and love, as well as the movie Project X, centered around one huge out of control high school party. She refers to the chemistry chapter of quantum mechanics, that only us juniors would understand the humor of "Sleep sounds a hell of a lot better than quantum mechanics." The comical aspect also plays a big role in her letter, keeping the reader entertained and craving for more words. Horn, sarcastically speaking to her junior year, says " And please, I beg you, do not worry about the five extra hours a week of SAT work. I didn't want to go to that party anyway." The topic encapsulates her feelings towards the overload of work junior year is giving her, and the sarcasm adds humor to the subject, enticing the reader to read more. Overall, Horn sarcastically writes about all the negative things her junior year has done, but concludes with a more positive note, thanking her junior year for making her realize she must work hard to get what she wants. I loved this letter because it was so easily relatable, it was everything I had felt this year formatted creatively and written extremely well, and also had me laughing out loud throughout. I couldn't have been happier that my talented best friend had written this, and maybe I'm a little biased, but this is one of the best articles I've ever done my TOW on. Horn should write weekly for the Huffington Post. 

TOW #18: Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream by Jennifer Ackerman (Part 1)

     Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream is not your ordinary boring, informative, convoluted science book. Instead, this book is a game changer in the realm of biological non-fiction. Jennifer Ackerman creatively takes the reader through a day in the life of their body. Often using second person, she organizes the book from starting at the moment you wake up, all through the body's daily activities, to the deep sleep and the mystery of dreams. Not only does she get down to the molecular level of why the body acts the way it does, she always brings it back to the big picture of the body's function to keep the reader on track of the day and not lost in the scientific language. As well as thoroughly explaining complicated science talk in a more basic way, she backs up all of her explanations with scientific evidence, experiments, and studies. Not only do these back up her explanations, but they also combat popular believing myths of the body, keeping the book entertaining and intriguing. For example, did you know that being in the cold and getting sick are not correlated? More people get sick in the winter time because of the close proximity to other humans from being inside more often. Also, the best time to work out is not in the morning like most people think, but in the evening when your muscle strength, flexibility, and body temperature is at its peak. Being educated about these myths are important to live in your one and only body the best way possible.
     Ackerman uses multiple anecdotes as well to appeal to pathos and ethos. These anecdotes help remind the reader once in a while that Ackerman is also a human, and just a writer, not a doctor or scientist. This reminder is helpful because she was just as curious as the reader to the functions our body carries out and why. The whole book entails interesting details and facts about the body that I would never have knew on my own. For example, the bugs and bacteria in our stomach help determine what weight we are, by fidgeting you can burn off as many calories as you consume, that the descend action of a workout is what actually builds your muscles, and many many many more.
   I am so excited to finish this book. Just like Ackerman felt, I am so fascinated by the human body, and how I constantly do things without one thought to the action. I am amazed at what goes on inside the body, without me even knowing. This is my one and only body that I will live with for 85+ (hopefully) years. I might as well get to know it a little bit.