My roommate sent me a box of pomegranates. They gave me a relatively large one, which I placed next to my computer for a few days and only remembered yesterday afternoon. Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to eat this pomegranate. Maybe it's because I haven't eaten this fruit in a long time, or maybe it holds a special memory for me. As I ate, I thought about many things.
To be honest, I don't really like eating this kind of troublesome fruit. First, you have to peel it open and pick out the pomegranate seeds one by one. If you're not careful, the juice can easily splash onto your clothes. The pomegranate seeds are also small, and it's not interesting to eat just one or two. I prefer to stuff a handful directly into my mouth. As for whether to eat the seeds or the juice inside the pomegranate, I don't think it's important. I don't want to bother with spitting out the seeds when eating a pomegranate, so I just eat it directly. I used to see pre-peeled pomegranates being sold in the fruit supermarket, with a small plate filled with many pomegranate seeds. However, a plate is quite expensive, so it's better to buy the whole fruit.
When I was in third grade of elementary school, I wrote my first essay. The title was "An Unforgettable Event". Although it has been ten years and I can no longer find that essay, I still remember the event quite clearly. It was the first time I wrote about pomegranates in that essay, and the main content was "picking pomegranates". I'm not bragging, but at that time, everyone in the class was writing their first essay. After we finished writing, we handed them to the teacher for correction. While everyone else's essays were returned to them by the teacher, mine was read aloud in class by the teacher. It may not have been written very well, but at least it was one of the better ones in the class. When I received it back, I saw many red circles inside, which made me secretly happy.
The event of picking pomegranates did happen, and I wrote about picking pomegranates at my grandmother's house. Since it was the first time writing, who would know how to use fancy words and beautiful sentences? I simply narrated the event from beginning to end and included all the details that happened. At that time, as long as the sentences were coherent, it was considered good, regardless of whether the language and words used were beautiful or not. I have always believed that when writing narrative essays, you should write about things you have experienced, write them down in a complete manner, and then add in the details. It is easy to express your emotions because you have experienced it and have feelings. All you need to do is record what happened at that time and your feelings at the time. This is much easier than fabricating a story and imagining various plots and emotions.
From elementary school to junior high school, I wrote the most narrative essays, from "An Unforgettable Event" to "An Unforgettable Person". To be honest, among so many narrative essays, there were more fake ones than real ones. The ones that are still in my memory are mostly the ones that actually happened, such as the aforementioned "Picking Pomegranates" and "Learning to Ride a Bicycle". Actually, there aren't that many things to write about. Everyone's childhood is different, and the childhood of teachers is different from ours. Every time I see an essay topic, the first thing I think about is whether I have done something similar. If I have, then it's easy to write; if not, then it's quite troublesome, and I have to make something up. I don't know if elementary school students and junior high school students still need to continue writing "Unforgettable XXX" type of essays, and I don't know what interesting things they will write about.
In addition to not liking to make up essays, there is one more thing I don't like, which is overly fancy language. Excessive flowery language often conceals the true beauty of the article and obscures the most genuine emotions that the article intends to express. I really like reading "My Mother" written by Hu Shi. It is an autobiographical prose that also describes many things about his mother, including her education and care for him, as well as the process of his mother interacting with the family. He portrayed his mother's image on paper in a straightforward manner, and from the simple language, one can see Hu Shi's nostalgia for his mother.
Well, I have finished eating the pomegranate, and I have finished talking.