Physical Description of Michael

Michael has a very college-like look about him. Standing tall at what I would say a little over six feet, he dresses well enough in clothes that fit perfectly and typically wears a baseball cap backwards. It's perfect, really, that he should look as he does. He tells me that he is a member of Ohio University's Student Senate, an organization I know so little about. But just the name should imply a certain look about him; one of professionalism and calmness. He manages to maintain this whether he be walking around campus or sitting in Alden, watching me scribble notes on whatever he says. Michael is able to sit motionless, a skill I admire, which is something that surprises me given the extra stress he must endure from being a student, working at his job and participating in numerous groups on campus.

He's built like an athlete, a form he says he acquired in high school. Even so, everything about his face says that he is one of the most friendly types of people you can meet. He has a long smile, not afraid to show off purely white teeth. His eyes squint up a little whenever he does so, and his forehead shifts forward a bit revealing a tiny amount of brownish-blond hair. His features scream the word 'charisma', which is a trait I imagine comes off as very important to him.

"The American Male at Age Ten"

The primary trait that makes this essay stand out to me is the relatively familiar childlike innocence that Susan Orlean manages to capture so brilliantly. When you're ten years old, it's easy to imagine marrying someone and leading a life of joy and prosperity. Something that is interesting is that she mixes adult language and childlike language in a unique manner. For example, in the first paragraph, she writes: "We wouldn't have sex, but we would have crushes on each other and, magically, babies would appear in our home." Obviously a ten year old is too young to be thinking about having/not having sex (or so we'd all like to hope, anyway), so we see her current self commenting alongside her child self, who believes that babies are a natural product of two people liking each other. Little details like that help give the essay character, and it keeps it from becoming too mundane and bogged down in its own potential innocence.