nonfic Joe bog

     Man, I love yogurts. Any flavor, color size. I'll even eat the plain, bitter, fermented greek yogurts which are honestly kind of nasty. Ok so maybe not every yogurt, but you get the point. Dairy in general is fantastic. It wasn’t always this way though. The most memorable thing I ever got in the mail was my yogurt spoon, but beyond the physical item, the ideas and connections it presented to me have stuck with me since.       The first yogurt I ever had was my mom’s kefir. At 6 years old, I picked up the bottle thinking it was just milk. Boy was I wrong. Instantly I spit it out, disgusted at the drink that she regularly consumed. In my mind it was poison, not fit for human consumption. When confronted, she disagreed.  “You’ll get used to the taste, it’s fine” Lie I never liked Kefir, and I never will.       The next yogurt I tried was called Trix. This was my first excursion back into the world of  fermented milk ...

  Branching Out my Family Tree I’ve always wondered why it's called a family tree. It implies you can perfectly trace your lineage: you can't (at least not me). The analogy is also just wrong. Your lineage gets wider the farther back you go (e.g. your roots), but a tree gets wider the higher up you go. It's upside down, and not green or alive. Similarly, asking “who is your family” is quite the open ended question. You could be asking what specifically are their relations to me, what types of people they are, how I perceive them, or anything else. I’m sure that by the end of this essay, you’ll have more questions than answers, but maybe that's okay. Maybe I’ve driven you to learn more about them. Or maybe you’re just trying to get credit for class. That’s what I’m doing anyway. Fundamentally, my family includes my Father and Mother, the people who created me. Next comes my older sister, unfortunately. Finally, some might include a pet, like my deceased hamster Ginger,...