Cognative Paper

The choice of two
Ashley White
Writing 241

Sam couldn’t decide whether or not to leave her hair down or to pull it up for her date. It wasn’t as if it was a major deal or anything; they were just going to the movies. Yet no matter what Sam did to her hair she wasn’t satisfied, either looking too casual or too formal, never the right balance in-between. And considering that Sam had never been on a real date before, this was a “change life as we know it” decision, at least in her fourteen year old eyes.
“Can’t decide on a hair do?” her nineteen year old sister said coming up behind her. Sam sighed and turned to her sister, “Yep”.
“Do you a little help?”
“You think you can do better Cheese breathe?!” Sam retorted, not out of spit for her sister but out of frustration with her hair.
“I know I can do better Pipsqueak!” Her sister fired back and then, without another word, gently took the brush out of her younger sister’s hair and began to work her magic. “So, it’s Darrell that you’re going out with?” Sam began to nod but she realized that it would probably mess up the work her sister was doing with her hair. “Yes.” Is all she said then.
“But I thought that you said that you liked Connor?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes it does, and you know it Sam! If you like Connor still it would be wrong to go out with Darrell, especially if you’re just trying to make Connor jealous.”
“I’m not trying to make Connor jealous!”
“Then what gives?”
Sam shrugged. It wasn’t that she didn’t still like Connor Bradley, because she had the hugest crush on him. No, to say that it was just a crush would do injustice, Sam adored Connor.
“Darrell is a nice guy.”
“But if you still have as strong of feelings for Connor as I think you do, hell, you can see that you’re obsessed with him from space! And to go out with someone else when you have such feelings for Connor would just be wrong!”
Sam knew that this was true. Darrell was a great guy. She wasn’t really meaning to lead him on, especially since he had the same sort of crush on her as Sam had on Connor. But Darrell was the only guy who had asked her out or showed any sort of an interest in her.
“It’s not like Connor will ever ask me out.”
“You don’t know that for certain Sam.” Her sister said setting down the brush. ‘Wow’ Sam couldn’t help but think. Somehow, her sister was able to take the mess that was her hair and make it nice, not going to a wedding or prom nice, but still nice in its own way. Not that she would ever admit it to her sister. “You don’t know what is going through his head.”
“He has a girlfriend.”
“Even so, is it really right for you to lead Darrell on like that? I thought that he was your friend. How would you feel if Connor asked you out but really had feelings for another girl?”
At that moment the doorbell rang, causing both sisters to jump. It turned out to be Darrell. As Sam was about to walk out the door her sister whispered to her “ I know that it’s your mistake to make sis, but please think about what I said.” And as Sam walked out the door, she couldn’t help but think that her sister was right.

Today’s adolescences don’t find the joy in reading today like in the past. There are many different reasons why this probably happens and one cannot blame one sole source for this decline in young readers, one of these reasons maybe because of the new advances in technology such as TV, video games and the internet. Back in the day, reading was the form of entertainment. Even after the invention of electricity, it wasn’t until just before the great depression that electricity was used for entertainment in the home and even then, with radio, people mostly relied on reading and simple games for entertainment. With advances in technology people, such as children with short attention spans, don’t need to read in order to keep from being bored. Another reason maybe the instant gratification that our society has come to demand. Reading, as we all know, is not a quick thing, it takes, patience, time, thinking. None of these attribute to instant gratification and are things that you have to work for. I believe that these reasons and many more are why kids don’t read today.
It will take a lot to get children back into reading. I think that parents need to start introducing their children to books sooner and the TV later. Parents also need to stop using TV as an at home babysitter, have their children turn the TV and computer off and spend time with them. I’m not trying to say that these things are all around bad, but too much is truly bad and I think that children start spending their life in front of a screen to early in life and that it has a bad effect. Another important thing is that parents need to show their children that reading can be exciting and that it can be relevant in their lives. A favorite book of mine that could be used for this is The Chronicles of Narnia.
I remember when my mom read this book series to me and my sister when we where eleven and six respectively. It was my mom’s idea of getting me off the Harry Potter craze. Either way I found that the book was every bit as exciting as it was for my mom when she read them as a kid. I found a world that I could escape to a world of magic and a place where good conquers all. What my mom loved about the books where that they had good morals; where even the good guys, if they do something wrong, experience consequences, good always conquers evil, and the story was rarely dark. I think that this would be a good book to read to children at adolescent age because it’s not just another lame children’s’ book but isn’t dirty or poor literature like some of the things that people read today. The Chronicles of Narnia is good literature, even by the standards of today’s toughest literary critics. It is a book that parents would be happy to see their children reading and a book that most adolescence would enjoy to read on their own.