Hello, and thank you for taking the time to read this! This essay is pretty strange I guess, but I just finished reading a Kurt Vonegut book so I'm feeling pretty strange. Tell me what you think about it. Too weird? Does the end need to be longer/do I need to drive the point in better at the end? Thanks!
Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they?
When I was thirteen years old I decided it would probably be a good idea to learn to like coffee. The liquid seemed to me a hallmark of maturity & adultness, and I thought that if I were ever going to be somebody important that did important things with important people I had better learn to stomach the stuff. To this day I would still rather drink mud if given a choice between the two. I don't necessarily dislike tea, but I would never order it from a restaurant or make it for myself. Except Thai Iced Tea, because to be honest I would probably do a lot of ridiculous things for a glass of Thai Iced Tea. I'm not sure if liking Thai Iced Tea counts as liking tea though, because it's so much more than just tea, and I don't know what the rules for classifying something as tea are. I guess what I'm trying to say is that overall I mostly don't like tea or coffee. I'm more of a hot chocolate type of guy, and although it's a little funny to go on coffee dates and order hot chocolate, usually girls don't mind.
I own two dogs, Maggie and Archimedes. I had a third dog, Socrates, but this past summer I had to hire an animal doctor to kill him peacefully so he wouldn't die painfully on his own. It was tragic and I was very heartbroken and cried a great deal, but I got to spend ten years with him, so I guess it's okay that he died on my 20th birthday. Generally only small children cry a great deal on their birthdays, but there I was, 20 years old and flooding like the Nile in August before the Aswan Dam was built. It was a little embarrassing to be truthful, crying like that on my birthday in front of all my friends, but I have really nice, caring friends, and they pretended that I cried much less than I actually did and distracted me with burritos and cake and presents. For my birthday we dressed up in our nicest clothes, put paper crowns on, and ate burritos, and even though my dog had just died and I cried more than I would have liked to, I still look back on that day with great fondness.
In addition to my two dogs I also own two cats. Boots is 17 years old and can't hear very well, so he meows extraordinarily loudly all the time, I think just to make sure I know he's alive. Simba is 15 and named after the character from the Lion King. My cats are nice, and with them being so old I can hardly remember what my life was like before they were a part of it. They get along just fine with Maggie and Roxy, and sometimes the five of us sit together for an hour or two and watch baseball, or a nice movie. This is something I will really miss when I move away to college.
As far as The Great Gatsby is concerned, I actually can't truthfully claim to have read it. I don't know what it's about, but if I were a betting man I would wager that it's pretty good since a great deal of high school English teachers attempt to get their students to read it every year. Growing up I wish I would have paid more attention to what my high school English teachers told me; I realize now that high school English teachers are some of the smartest and most passionate people in the world. I actually read The Catcher in the Rye for the first time in high school, and I'm really glad it was assigned to my class because it has since become one of my top five favorite books of all time. I love the book because when I read it I can't help but laugh out loud; sometimes I'll chuckle particularly noisily and someone will look over, and if they see the book and have read it too, they'll smile and nod. What's nice about the laughter that comes from The Catcher in the Rye is that it's not cheap. The laughter that comes from Holden Caulfield is the richest laughter in the world, the kind that comes from something that's not comedic but instead actually genuinely tragic, and somehow in some little way reminds you of your own life. In a sense it's not really funny at all, just truthful enough about life to make laughter the only way to deal with it. And I bet a lot of people say this because the school you work for is Kurt Vonnegut's alma mater, but for many of the same reasons Breakfast of Champions is also one of my top five favorite books of all time. And I swear I'm not just saying that because you work where you do.
I guess what I'm really trying to get at here is this -- are there really only two types of people in the world? After reading the prompt for this essay, it was really the only thought that ran through my head. What about the people who like Catcher in the Rye compared to The Great Gatsby but actually don't like either book very much at all, or who like Holden Caulfield more than any one character in Great Gatsby, but overall appreciate Fitzgerald's work more? Or guys who like hot chocolate instead of coffee or tea? Or people that like cats just as much as dogs, or actually like dogs more than cats but own cats because they're allergic to dogs? Or maybe even just like rabbits?! The point I'm trying to make is that there are so many shades of grey in between black and white, so many nuances and small details that make up the world that it seems an impossible task to lump everything into just two groups. If there is one thing I've learned in college its that despite human nature and its constant attempt to lump everything into broad categories, nothing is that simple. Nothing can be that simple. The world is by its very nature staggeringly complex, and it's a wonderful thing! All the nuances that exist, the idiosyncrasies, oddities, and quirks that make people who they are, those are the important things in life, and are truly what define a person and make life worth living. So in the end, to actually answer the prompt, this will be my point ---> There are two types of people in this world -- people who think there are two types of people in the world, and people who think there are more than two types of people in the world.
Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they?
When I was thirteen years old I decided it would probably be a good idea to learn to like coffee. The liquid seemed to me a hallmark of maturity & adultness, and I thought that if I were ever going to be somebody important that did important things with important people I had better learn to stomach the stuff. To this day I would still rather drink mud if given a choice between the two. I don't necessarily dislike tea, but I would never order it from a restaurant or make it for myself. Except Thai Iced Tea, because to be honest I would probably do a lot of ridiculous things for a glass of Thai Iced Tea. I'm not sure if liking Thai Iced Tea counts as liking tea though, because it's so much more than just tea, and I don't know what the rules for classifying something as tea are. I guess what I'm trying to say is that overall I mostly don't like tea or coffee. I'm more of a hot chocolate type of guy, and although it's a little funny to go on coffee dates and order hot chocolate, usually girls don't mind.
I own two dogs, Maggie and Archimedes. I had a third dog, Socrates, but this past summer I had to hire an animal doctor to kill him peacefully so he wouldn't die painfully on his own. It was tragic and I was very heartbroken and cried a great deal, but I got to spend ten years with him, so I guess it's okay that he died on my 20th birthday. Generally only small children cry a great deal on their birthdays, but there I was, 20 years old and flooding like the Nile in August before the Aswan Dam was built. It was a little embarrassing to be truthful, crying like that on my birthday in front of all my friends, but I have really nice, caring friends, and they pretended that I cried much less than I actually did and distracted me with burritos and cake and presents. For my birthday we dressed up in our nicest clothes, put paper crowns on, and ate burritos, and even though my dog had just died and I cried more than I would have liked to, I still look back on that day with great fondness.
In addition to my two dogs I also own two cats. Boots is 17 years old and can't hear very well, so he meows extraordinarily loudly all the time, I think just to make sure I know he's alive. Simba is 15 and named after the character from the Lion King. My cats are nice, and with them being so old I can hardly remember what my life was like before they were a part of it. They get along just fine with Maggie and Roxy, and sometimes the five of us sit together for an hour or two and watch baseball, or a nice movie. This is something I will really miss when I move away to college.
As far as The Great Gatsby is concerned, I actually can't truthfully claim to have read it. I don't know what it's about, but if I were a betting man I would wager that it's pretty good since a great deal of high school English teachers attempt to get their students to read it every year. Growing up I wish I would have paid more attention to what my high school English teachers told me; I realize now that high school English teachers are some of the smartest and most passionate people in the world. I actually read The Catcher in the Rye for the first time in high school, and I'm really glad it was assigned to my class because it has since become one of my top five favorite books of all time. I love the book because when I read it I can't help but laugh out loud; sometimes I'll chuckle particularly noisily and someone will look over, and if they see the book and have read it too, they'll smile and nod. What's nice about the laughter that comes from The Catcher in the Rye is that it's not cheap. The laughter that comes from Holden Caulfield is the richest laughter in the world, the kind that comes from something that's not comedic but instead actually genuinely tragic, and somehow in some little way reminds you of your own life. In a sense it's not really funny at all, just truthful enough about life to make laughter the only way to deal with it. And I bet a lot of people say this because the school you work for is Kurt Vonnegut's alma mater, but for many of the same reasons Breakfast of Champions is also one of my top five favorite books of all time. And I swear I'm not just saying that because you work where you do.
I guess what I'm really trying to get at here is this -- are there really only two types of people in the world? After reading the prompt for this essay, it was really the only thought that ran through my head. What about the people who like Catcher in the Rye compared to The Great Gatsby but actually don't like either book very much at all, or who like Holden Caulfield more than any one character in Great Gatsby, but overall appreciate Fitzgerald's work more? Or guys who like hot chocolate instead of coffee or tea? Or people that like cats just as much as dogs, or actually like dogs more than cats but own cats because they're allergic to dogs? Or maybe even just like rabbits?! The point I'm trying to make is that there are so many shades of grey in between black and white, so many nuances and small details that make up the world that it seems an impossible task to lump everything into just two groups. If there is one thing I've learned in college its that despite human nature and its constant attempt to lump everything into broad categories, nothing is that simple. Nothing can be that simple. The world is by its very nature staggeringly complex, and it's a wonderful thing! All the nuances that exist, the idiosyncrasies, oddities, and quirks that make people who they are, those are the important things in life, and are truly what define a person and make life worth living. So in the end, to actually answer the prompt, this will be my point ---> There are two types of people in this world -- people who think there are two types of people in the world, and people who think there are more than two types of people in the world.
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