compare and contrast 98

Who Would Have Thought?

You can’t pick who you are friends with or who you love. There is something inside that

attracts you to each and every person. Maybe it is the way they look at you, or the things they

say. In some cases I think attraction can be a sub-conscience matter that we don’t have control

over. I know this first hand. I met Mike in high school. The funny thing is I never really

thought much about him. He was the class clown and I was the prissy teacher’s pet who looked

down on him. It still seems odd to me that we became as close as we are.

Mike and I are like apples and oranges. Every aspect of us is different, except for our

height. I was a cheerleader, president of the choir and a member of the drama club. Mike didn’t

belong to any school activities, unless you count detention. For fun my friends and I would go to

the movies or to a football game. His friends would put their cars on cruise control and see if

they could jump out, run along side, and then jump back in. Mike was in a few of my classes

and always made a big point of teasing me about my grades, being in the choir, or my friends. I

always acted like I hated him but deep down I enjoyed the attention.

We both graduated L’Anse Creuse and went our separate ways. Mike went to school as

far away as he could manage. I stayed home afraid to go too far. Mike never crossed my mind

for a whole school year. That summer a friend and I went to pick up a pizza and there he was. It

is funny how one year of college can change a person. For the first time in my life I looked at

Mike with something other than disgust. I must have stood in that pizza place for two hours

laughing and flirting with the boy who once dressed up as a woman and came into my work on a

dare. Mike asked for my phone number and we planned to get together and watch a movie the

next night.

On my way to Mike’s house I kept thinking of how a relationship with him would never

work out. We were too different. Once I saw his room I realized my thinking may have been

right. I have never seen so much junk in one place. Every inch of Mike’s walls were covered

with posters of rock bands and girls holding beer in their bikinis. The only thing besides paint on

my walls were a few framed pictures of family and friends. I cleaned my room everyday and

always made sure to make it extra special for company. Mike’s room looked as if he dumped the

contents of his dressers and his closet on the floor. Normally, I would have been disgusted by a

mess like this but for some reason I didn’t let it bother me. Mike and I had a great night and

started seeing more of each other.

Lately I don’t think I go more than a day without talking to Mike. When he comes home

from school we are inseparable. Once in awhile we do get in fights though, being as different as

we are there is no way we can avoid them. We fight over what music to listen to in the car more

of all. We resolved that one by saying whoever’s car we are in gets to chose. We never take my

car anymore. Even though our lives are completely different we share one thing in common,

each other. The boy I used to tell on for cheating off of me is now my best friend, and one of the

most important people in my life. I couldn’t imagine my life with out him. You cant pick who

you are friends with or who you love. There is something inside that attracts you to each and

every person. I guess the song is right, opposites really do attract.

answer the questions:

Does the writer of the essay “Who Would Have Thought” which is in the module for this week use point by point or whole by whole for her essay? Was this a good decision? Why or why not? Also, what is she comparing and/or contrasting? What is her thesis?