Two of the essays that I enjoyed reading from the This I Believe project are “Always go to the Funeral” by Deirdre Sullivan and “My Dad’s ” by Angela.
Sullivan believes in always going to the funeral, the title caught my eye and I found her story to be quite moving. In her essay she talks about one of the important things her father taught her and that’s to always go to a funeral. She mentions, and I think we can all agree, that sometimes we’re forced to go to funerals for family friends that we weren’t really closed to but we do so because our parents force us to. Although she didn’t want to go to her fifth grade teacher’s funeral she went anyways, it wasn’t until the passing of her father that she realized the importance of taking the time to attend a funeral. To us it might not mean much, but to the people that are going through a hard time due to the loss of a family member our attendance at the funerals will always be remembered.
Angela’s essay is about the love a dog can bring to their owner. I read this essay because of the tittle ” My Dad’s ” ( I thought your dad’s what?). I was able to identify with Angela because I also believe in the unconditional love a dog brings. Shadow was her parent’s dog and she was named Shadow because she was always with Angela’s dad. I was a bit emotional at the end and if you get the chance to read it you’ll understand why.
Although these essays were written by different people they share some things in common, one of them being the impact people and pets have on us and the lessons we learn from them. Sullivan learned something from her father, and that’s to always show she cares by doing small things like giving up her time to go to a funeral. Angela learned that dogs can give unconditional love and how even a stubborn person like her father can become emotionally attached to a friend, even though Angela herself didn’t understand at first why her father was reluctant to let go. I guess these essays were interesting to me because I believe we meet the people we do for a reason, and in a way these essays showed that.
Today we went to the Wang Center and we looked at the piece called White Wonderland by Korean-American Artist Wonju Seo. At first I thought they were marble tiles that made the art piece but then I saw that it was actually composed of fabric, it’s called pojagi-traditional Korean patchwork. I found Ms.Seo’s website and she has a video on the making of this piece from hand stitching each piece to assembling it at the Wang Center.
The Personal Essay 