My Class Portfolio!
For my final food journal of this semester, I decided to write about my food memories from this semester! I’ve actually grown a lot, and can proudly say I actually willingly eat my own food now. I will admit, up until moving here I used to burn microwaveable mac & cheese, so this is huge!
PROJECT 1: FOOD NARRATIVE ERA
Seeing as this class started in January, I had already moved out of my dorm (short-lived but well needed), and into an apartment on campus. Having an entire kitchen without a mom or grandma to cook was pretty disappointing, but i made do. Ironically, the food this reflection is about is the same topic of my narrative: Cinnamon and Sugar toast! Right when we moved in I did not have much to work with, we literally had no pans, so I decided to think innovatively. I went to Highland Market and picked up bread, then stopped by CVS for the three key ingredients: Cinnamon, Sugar, and Butter. When I got home my innovative thinking halted when I realized we did not even have a toaster, so I thought more innovatively and just threw the toast on the stove. That was not my smartest idea, seeing as I completely torched the poor toast. Round two came with success, though, and then I quickly realized I also did not have a single utensil to spread the butter with. So I basically just rubbed the stick of butter all over the toast and it worked, surprisingly. After all that stress, I just sprinkled on the sweet stuff and bam it was done! I stared at it for a couple seconds as it was giving me fourth degree burns (we also did not have napkins, trainwreck I know) and basked in the glory of actually cooking something. After the trauma, I sat down to write my rough draft and then it dawned on me that I had never made this for myself since moving to Tucson. Along with that, I thought of my Grandpa for the first time since being in college and smiled. He would have been so proud of me for many reasons, but especially because I mixed the cinnamon and sugar before sprinkling it.
Having this sort of full-circle moment whilst just starting my paper really just solidified that I picked the right topic. I also put an immense pressure on myself to make it perfect, which is definitely not helpful. I always beat myself up about my writing and never am satisfied with my work. That mentality is the mother of mind blocks, and I can confidently say I had three too many in drafting this project. On the other hand, that is exactly why I appreciate the opportunity to draft so much. I have a tendency to get over excited when I write and just let all my ideas flow right out of me, which always sounds pretty rough. I appreciate drafting, and peer review, because constructive criticism is what motivates me the most. It is interesting, though, doing peer reviews without ever meeting the person, which obviously made this past year hard because we were all so disattached from our peers. I, personally, always send my papers to my mom, who is so brutal but in the best way. She always prints it out and marks it up in red pen, then sends me a picture of it like we could not just share a doc. Love it though, she taught me how to keep my cool when I was growing up with yoga. Once I distanced myself from the personal story I was telling, it was super easy to really focus on cultivating the narrative aspect for my final. I definitely learned that no matter how near and dear to my heart, the best writing is with emotions, not emotional.
PROJECT 2: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ERA
This part of the semester was pretty tough. There was a lot going on and I rarely had time for myself. Ubereats was basically my savior and I had absolutely no shame in that. Though, one night I was alone in the apartment and could not wait the thirty minutes for the driver, so I busted open the fridge. Completely unfazed, I pulled out the three groceries I had at that point: hot sauce, bagels, and a singular carton of eggs. Dinner of champions. After improving as a chef, I now knew how to make eggs, and good ones at that. When I was home doing the end of my senior year of highschool, everyday without fail my mom would bring me an egg sandwich on an everything bagel during english class. It literally became my staple, and gave me something to look forward to other than shutting my laptop. Before I left for school, I asked my mom to teach me how to make it for if (I did) I ever got Zoom fatigue. It was fairly simple, but nobody makes eggs like Bena. Seriously I do not know how she does it but they are perfect. Feeling confident, I tried to recreate her sneaky little trick I saw millions of times. I buttered and salted the pan, adding milk to them when they are slightly cooked, and then plopped them on my bagel. Literal perfection. From then on, that was my only food group, having it three times a day. Can not say it was a healthy month, but it sure tastes good.
Writing the rhetorical analysis was one of my favorite papers I have ever written. I said above that I am never satisfied with my work but I truly think that is one of my best. Whenever I get to write about something I am passionate about, i.e. politics, I really enjoy the freedom of expression. Though I actually revised the paper about three times because it sounded astonishingly bias and that was not the message I wanted to portray. I think by the third revision, I finally mastered slight bias with an overwhelming neutral, even though my Kamala Harris calendar was staring me dead in the eyes. I usually struggle embedding quotes and using in text citations, but this was a breeze. My sources were fantastic and helpful as well as impartial to sides. Being able to write about the flop Pepsi commercial had to be my favorite part. When that came out, my best friend, Kaylie, and I were legitimately shell shocked. We simply could not comprehend how that got approved for release, so revisiting that was an interesting and educational walk down memory lane of a summer filled with attending protests and tear gas. Including Kaepernick as well was a major must have for me for this paper. His struggle and hardships will never go unnoticed and seemed extremely fitting as well. This paper was extremely easy, the fastest and best work I have ever produced.
PROJECT 3: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ERA
As the semester was winding down, so was my will to do anything. End of semester burnout is super real and super draining. I found it hard for me to leave my room let alone my bed, and like a normal human, needed food. During one grocery store outing I spotted something very interesting. Frozen popcorn shrimp! Coming from the NorthEast, fresh seafood is found everywhere, all the time. Since moving to Tucson, I have been told many times to simply not go near any fish sold in this state. Obviously it makes sense, but I could go for a Lobster Roll right about anytime I breathe. That being said, this frozen isle shrimp seemed inviting, and you know, edible. I picked up a box and ran to preheat the oven when I got home. Already having cajun seasoning, it was up to these bad boys to make or break the moment. They came out in twelve minutes and I immediately threw one in my mouth. It was so good and with a little bit of lemon juice, it was perfect. The next time we went to Target, I completely stocked up. Now I eat them at least once a day, as a nice little reminder that I am going home soon to fresh seafood, and a credible ocean.
Doing the annotated bibliography was far less challenging than I assumed, my only problem being the sources. Initially, I always wanted to do four different aspects of what makes food a source of communication, and how each play their own role in the endeavor. I had by search words and everything ready, but struggled finding the main four ideas. I quickly realized that this is a developing research topic, with everything being in the last 21 years, and could not find a single thing that was not super vague. After spending a lot of time playing with the key words and filters on the side, I finally grabbed a few pretty great sources.Once putting them together, I tried to picture how I would input all this information into a essay, which in turn helped me with the intro and conclusion. I never realized how difficult it is to write both of those paragraphs without an outline of the entire paper.
