For most people, seeing snowflakes fall on a Friday night is a magical feeling. I imagine that there’s something special about millions of tiny ice crystals floating to the ground that I just can’t seem to appreciate. I am fascinated by the natural process that creates snowflakes, but I suppose that my lack of appreciation stems from the fact that I know that instead of sleeping in like everyone else on Saturday morning, I’ll be up early shovelling the snow by myself. I’m fine with doing this chore, but I find it amusing when people who don’t have to haul pounds of snow and scrape ice from a driveway until their hands freeze say that they find the snow fun. I suppose it’s just me being sour though – perhaps I should allow people to have their fun with it as long as they can.
I suppose snowy days still have their own benefits for me. After a (sometimes long) morning of getting my face slapped by icy wind and wishing I had thicker pants, I can look forward to freedom for a few hours. I shoot pool by myself in the basement, exercise without worrying about anyone interrupting, and do homework without any distractions. However, all these activities eventually result in a feeling of hunger; as freedom too needs to be replenished. The concept of breakfast seems the most real to me on these mornings. Most of the time, I don’t even feel hungry and regard breakfast as more of a ritual.
The problem is, my skills in the kitchen don’t match my appetite. Luckily, there is one food that I can always count on to be filling and delicious: bananas. Bananas are pretty much the only food where you know exactly what you’re getting every time you pick one up. If it’s bitter, that’s your fault for opening it while it was too green. If it’s too mushy, it’s once again your fault for waiting too long before peeling it. Personally, I like to wait until the banana is totally yellow; maybe with a few brown freckles. Whether I incorporate it into a smoothie, put it onto toast, or just eat it plain, the banana is an essential part of my morning diet and I cannot think of one food that I can consistently enjoy as much as it.
I would like to say that my favourite fruit isn’t controversial when it comes to something as simple as readying it for consumption, but unfortunately, this statement would not be true. I like to flip over the banana and peel it from the bottom to the end with the stem since I’ve found this works the fastest.
But whenever someone catches me peeling a banana in school, I always hear at least once that I peel it the wrong way. Honestly, I don’t think there’s even a wrong way to eat a banana, but the most common rationale I’ve heard explaining that someone should peel their banana from the stem side down is that apparently, monkeys do it like that. At the time, I couldn’t dispute the validity of this statement since I actually had no idea how monkeys and apes peeled their fruit. But why should I do something just because a monkey does? Although my beard and ears make me look like one, I’m not a monkey. Regardless, I decided to begin researching about how monkeys really do eat bananas – and this small project took me down a rabbit hole of knowledge: not only about bananas but about myself and my inner workings as well.
I learned very soon an undeniable fact: monkeys are really weird. Of those that actually do eat bananas, very few actually start at one end and peel it. Macaques and just break the whole banana in half and then squeeze out the actual fruit into their mouths. Orangutans put multiple bananas directly into their mouths (which makes for an amusing photo) and throw all the peels out afterwards.
Furthermore, most monkeys don’t even eat bananas in the wild. Take for example the gelada baboon, which spends most of its day looking for fresh grass shoots to eat and probably will never even see a banana in its life. And for the monkeys whose diet does contain bananas, they wouldn’t be recognizable to you and me. The wild bananas that monkeys naturally eat are much smaller, less sweet, and contain large seeds. In fact, the Cavendish banana (the one you and I are familiar with) is too sugary and will cause tooth decay in most animals, since they never brush their teeth.
And with that, I could be confident with the fact that monkeys did not indeed peel their bananas one way or another. I felt proud of my research and although the result did not affect my consumption of bananas at all, the common argument I had heard earlier had been disproved.
Yet there was something that continued to gnaw at me for the longest time – where does my favourite fruit come from? I had learned that the wild banana was nothing like the sweet yellow fruit I enjoy, so I began to research more into how the Cavendish banana came to be.
After a quick Google search, my hunger was satisfied: I found out that humans have actually been domesticating the banana for hundreds of years. Essentially, farmers only replanted banana plants that produced the largest, sweetest, and strongest bananas.
However, I quickly fell into yet another rabbit hole down the spiral of the internet and discovered the dark truth to the yellow fruit.
Dear Zaid,
I have heard nothing but great things about your writing and you did not disappoint. Your writing encompasses so many elements such as: analytical, critical , and personal, fusing all of these elements together and creating a masterful piece. I love how you introduced the bananas and kept the connection throughout the whole piece. There is so much to be proud of with this blog with idea shifts and the ability you possess to not get lost when writing.
As for improvement, I don’t have much to say. They say “nothing is perfect” but this piece is pretty close to perfection. It is obvious you have been blogging for some time and utilize the feedback given to you to create an amazing piece.
Overall, I cannot believe I have waited this long to read one of your pieces. You are a very strong writer and I hope it serves you well in your future. I got to say, I aspire to be like you as a writer! Well done.
Kind regards,
Aryan
Dear Aryan,
Thanks for taking a look at my blog post. I’m glad you found my shifts to be enjoyable since that was the main focus of my piece. Thanks for your praise as well and I too hope to utilize my writing ability in the next parts of my life. Your own work is exemplary and I have a lot to learn from it.
Sincerely,
Zaid
Dear Zaid;
A wonderful and very informative piece that definitely took a direction I didn’t anticipate. I love how you were able to delve deeper- in your research and personal connection- and better discuss with great insight about what it means to be human. We make mistakes and usually are too afraid to admit it; its takes a person who accepts fate as the regulator for our actions to admit there is more to life than what we expect, despite our efforts for control.
I also want to commend you on your ability to intermingle facts with your personal connection; your incredible insightful was only enhanced with the facts you’ve provided.
To me, your piece lacked any errors that deferred from the message you wanted to leave your readers with.
Thank you for representing the “bottom to stem” banana peeler community; you’re efforts are greatly appreciated.
Great job!
Sincerely,
Abeer
Dear Abeer,
It’s good to know you’re apart of the bottom to stem gang – we’ll take over the world soon.
Thanks for reading my work and leaving your thoughts as well. I was intending to be informational and reflective, and I’m glad you were able to appreciate that from my work. Hopefully we can all continue to recognize our own mistakes and do better in the future.
I’ve enjoyed very much having you in my class this year. Throughout the project we’ve worked on or even just from your contributions in class, I know your words are sincere and mean a lot coming from you. I invite your feedback on my future work as well on my personal blog!
Sincerely,
Zaid
Dear Zaid,
it was seeing your blog post on the main website about banana’s that sparked, for me, a large sense of interest in what it was you had to offer. It was such a strange and ‘unique’ topic that I somehow felt obligated to read about it. At first I thought it was your standard meme post, but after further analysis I am quite content with the level of thought you put into research, and how it impacts your life profoundly. I find it commendable that you turn make some trivial object into something with such an impact to your own life, while also relating it to the great picture of life as a whole – specifically to how some of us have our own desires instead of others. I enjoyed how you made this read simple to understand, while also showing a deeper understanding – kudos to the pun “as I can go totally bananas when I don’t understand something or someone.”
Good work on sharing your thoughts with this last(ish) blog post, and keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Justin
Dear Justin,
The banana photo was intended to intrigue someone to take a look at my post, so I’d consider it to be a success! Thanks for enjoying my work and leaving your thoughts on here as well. I hope we all are able to appreciate our own and others’ special interests we mature.
Sincerely,
Zaid
Dear Zaid,
What just happened? You somehow introduced some topic that I stored into the back of my mind while you discussed your thorough research on bananas, then when I least expected it, brought that topic back and related it beautifully to the whole message of this post. What? How? This was amazing! I sincerely applaud you for your commitment to your research and the care you took to explain it to the reader as best you could. I also commend you for the unique format of this, it really added an extra “wow” to your post at the end there. I will also admit I partook in a tad chuckle at some of the jokes you had cracked, so thank you for that.
As for glows, really just grammar. If I’m being honest, I enjoyed the post so much that I never noticed anything my first read. Really good job!
Thank you for making this post for readers such as I to be graced with! Excellent work!
-Jimmy
Dear Jimmy,
I don’t know what happened either to be true with you. My original plan for this was way different than what the final result turned out to be. Nonetheless, I’m glad you had fun reading since I definitely had fun writing it. I’ll have to go back to work on the grammar, so thanks for bringing that to my attention.
Sincerely,
Zaid
Dear Zaid,
Going into this post, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and you have surprised me. I did not think you could make a deep narrative based on bananas, but you did it. You were able to include much of your personal emotions into this piece, and I can feel your sorrow for the possible loss of your favorite fruit. Keep up the good work and I hope they can breed a new species of bananas that can survive the fungus without losing its flavor!
From,
Cameron
Dear Cameron,
I’m glad you had no expectations and were able to just take the post for what it was. In my writing I seek to challenge what the reader thinks is going to happen, and I’m glad I was able to convey understanding about bananas to you. Thanks for reading my work!
Sincerely,
Zaid
Dear Zaid,
I cannot believe you managed to bait me in with a photo of a banana. I was excited to see how you would cover this topic and at first – I can’t lie I was disappointed reading about snowflakes, but without me realizing, I was baited in once again! My excitement had resurfaced! I loved how you mentioned about these strange thoughts and how normally we think about how to peel a banana properly or how an orangutan actually eats their bananas. Overall I loved your pictures and your topic.
Sincerely,
Danny
Dear Danny,
I had to bait the reader with a photo of a banana since I hoped it would intrigue someone. I’m glad that you found it clever and stayed to read the rest of the piece. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and I welcome you to check out the rest of my work!
Sincerely,
Zaid