Personal Narrative: A Stranger's Coffee

King claims “constant reading will pull you into a place where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness (JTC 83).” Joe Suina’s And then I went to School allowed readers to understand what life might have been like for a child in the pueblo in the 1950’s. The audience can also see Suina’s emotion and reactions to the new experiences and how they conflicted with his family life. Different examples of memoir give readers a glimpse into their lives and learn from them.

It is now the third week and I am thinking more and more about how a small amount of caffeine will not hurt me. However, I managed to maintain my fast. I have cut down on the number of tasks that I schedule throughout the day. I do not make early morning plans to avoid getting too tired throughout the day. I stay in the bed as long as I can and I refrain from unnecessary conversations as much as I can. Overall, I think I am becoming more introverted and less social. If it wasn’t for me being pregnant I think I would have relapsed a lot sooner. One day I was struggling to get a couple of assignments completed. I was upset with myself for not being able to focus and produce the work. I thought for a while about what I could do to boost my focus. The answer was caffeine. I decided to go for something between herbal and caffeinate, which lead me to green tea. After drinking it I felt sick and had a pounding headache. I was shocked at my body’s reaction. Would fasting

Running through the packet was pretty straight forward. We had to go back and forth a bit to try and figure out portion sizes in the 24 hour recall. That only worked well because I’m familiar with food models and standard servings and she pays close attention to food portions (relatively). Other things, like a “pot of coffee”, are just out there. I still don’t know how many ounces that is. But she usually drinks it black, so calorie wise, its not an issue. I’d have to calculate if it hits the recommended 200-300mg of caffeine. But I only ever had a need to use that restriction when I was pregnant. So since Debbie, doesn’t have any heart issues, I don’t think its an big deal.

There’s nothing I look forward to more than my daily sugar fix: I have an undeniable sweet tooth. Whether my teeth are sunken in a slice of ripe, juicy watermelon, or in a bowl of raspberry gelato, I can't get enough of the taste of sugar. I am almost certain that if you close your eyes and eat something sweet, you can taste a little of the hot sun beating on a Brazilian sugarcane plantation, or of the refreshing water running through the plants.

The process of completing my memoir has been difficult, but fulfilling at the same time. It was difficult to figure out what topics I wanted to write about. I really wanted to dig deep into myself and write about topics that would change me. The prompts given to me about writing about your pet or funniest moment weren’t very appealing to me. I wanted to write about something that was difficult to write about, but would help me at the same time. Some of the topics I choose were a challenge because I was explaining meaningful things that I’ve never put in words before. My hardest topics included my first relationship, a significant person in my life, and my scariest moment. On the other hand, I enjoyed writing about how I got my name, appreciating

Memories and the author’s construction of themselves in autobiography only provide single experiences of a certain person or several certain people within the historical narrative, but they are also an essential part of making the historical archive a more human field of

I found the documentary very informative of how addictive caffeine can be. But at the same time it demonstrated tea which I had no idea there was tea which had caffeine in it. But I wish they would have shown people who drink tea regularly with caffeine properties stopping the routine of drinking tea. I wasn’t really surprised with how these students were addicted to caffeine the way they are. Nowadays not all of the times do individuals drink coffee to wake up but just because of all the new flavoring with iced coffee, This has cause individuals to become addicted to coffee without knowing but the taste it what is bringing them back.

As humans, we use stories to recognize our experiences, craft our sense of self and realize our place in the world (Kroth & Cranton, 2014, p. 35). When we share our personal narratives with others we are doing more than simply recounting an event, we are creating and expressing our identities. According to Kroth and Cranton (2014), narratives are “small steps to transformative learning” (p. 29), because when we hear narratives we are drawn into unfamiliar experiences and realize different perspectives that present challenges to our own. Stories expose discrepancies between what is already known and what is newly discovered, creating a dilemma and prompting the process of transformative learning. Transformative learning can also occur when we share our personal narratives as it leaves our stories open to the re-interpretation of other’s, who through different perspective lenses can see our stories and provide alternative explanations and this can cause us to reflect and assess our stories, and our sense of self. (Kroth & Cranton,

A random man off the streets of Brooklyn leaned into me. His eyes are dark red with almost black color close to the whites of his eyes. He is so close his nose is almost touching my nose. I can feel and smell his breath when he says, ¨We all have it here. We are all infected.¨

It was midnight in the middle of summer. Darkness had taken over as we walked through the city of Negaunee. Our group consisted of Chris, Evan, Hunter, Marc, Trey, and me. We had been on an expedition to find nothing in particular, except fun. Our tribe of young, dumb individuals had just come out of Super One as they were starting to close. We made our way over to the Subway to see if anyone was hanging around there. Hunter had just bought a Brisk Ice Tea from the supermarket, and had a few quarters left over. We thought nothing of it, but he was teeming to tell us his plan.

The place was also always so dirty. I spent my time cleaning everything because I knew I was the only one who would. Slim filled ice buckets, hair clung to the Styrofoam cups and tables always covered with spilled coffee. I cringed every time someone bought a donut or ice cream because I knew flies had been all over them. To make ice coffee we would use liquid sugar that was enclosed in a jar with a small pump, and somehow a bee got in there, and I unknowingly made drinks with that sugar. Slim was in the ice buckets as well. The store had expiration dates on the ice cream and toppings and sandwich station and everything usually lasted two days, after that they would need to be thrown away, which caused the store to lose money, so The owner

History can be studied and recorded in a multitude of ways. Historical autobiographies offer insight into personal stories of the past but raises the question of whether or not these individual histories have been skewed by memory. Historians can learn about more than just historical events by reading historical autobiographies. Autobiographical accounts are a unique form of history in which the reader takes on the perspective of the author and has the opportunity to get a first-hand glimpse of their personal experience and a feel of the environment in which these individuals lived their lives. In order to obtain an understanding of a specific time period, historians search for knowledge that can be verified (Popkin 11). In reconstructing

The personal and the autobiographical: The essayists that feel most comfortable in this pole "write fragments of reflective autobiography and look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description".

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” I shrieked. Feeling the molten lava that came out of our brand new coffee maker all over my arms and legs. Screaming in pain as I waited for my parents to come back from the farmers market. I swear you could hear the liquid burning my skin under my heavy breath.

As Margaret Atwood stated, “In the end, we’ll all become stories” (Atwood). Although this quote appears to be obvious, there is a profound significance it carries in life. As memories are made, we reflect on them and the stories that accumulate with those memories begin to define us. Sarah Polley’s 2013 Stories We Tell begins directly with Sarah presenting her storytellers, who are all part of the family. She simply asks her family to tell the story, from the beginning, of her mother Diane. They each have their own way of disclosing facts about Diane, but it’s how each person uniquely tells the story that is most interesting. Whether filled with pleasure, sorrow and even regret, each person uniquely describes Diane’s life. This reveals that how one is remembered or even currently portrayed is established through the memories of others, mysteries and all. Through the use of intimate interviews of her family members, Sarah Polley in Stories We Tell successfully investigates the reconstruction of her mother's existence, revealing the truth as murky. The memories and stories families collectively tell are what define the truth.