8th Post- Essay. YAY(:

In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, the author takes upon herself and her family a self-created project. She decides to spend a year in the food life. Barbara and her family, Steven, Camille, and Lily, vow to buy only local food or those that they have grown themselves and live without whats not in season for one year. For my AP Language Arts class, I had to choose a project that would interest me. I choose to challenge myself to get in shape. Kingsolver's project and mine are alike and different in many ways.









The first thing I thought of when it came to comparing and contrasting my project with Kingsolver's was the aspect of success or...not. Kingsolver managed to stay true to her project (except for the cranberries at Thanksgiving, but who can live without Cranberries for the holidays?). As for my project, well, it didn't quite turn out at all like I had hoped. Barbara's project is also quite different in terms of the time frame. Hers was a lot longer, compared to my two months. In addition, I would say Kingsolver's project was more difficult than mine, and yet, I'm the one who did not succeed. I find this kind of, well, disappointing and disappointing yourself is always the worst. I could have, and should have worked harder toward my goal.









As far as similarities go, I would say the biggest one between my getting in shape and Kingsolver's year in the food life would be that both of our projects were intended to better ourselves. Both projects help us better our health. Also, they both are things that are important to us. Kingsolver's project is important to her because she has a passion for food and supporting local farmers is near and dear to her heart. My project is important to me because being healthy and in shape can make my life better. Kingsolver and I share that our projects deal with things very important to us. Though, they are important to us in different ways.









I know that Mr. Wilson had said that it wasn't about what we do in our project; it's how well we can communicate it. I think it is obvious that I didn't get to where I had wanted in my project, but I also think it's clear that I now understand that saying you are going to do a project and actually doing it are two totally different things. I want to continue my project on my own because my health is important to me. I can imagine that Kingsolver will also continue to by and grow a lot of her food because she has a love for food and local farming. I hope that I can find some of Barbara's "stick to your guns" attitude to get exercising, get and health and stick with it. Then, maybe, I can transform the difference in our results to a shared victory.