Day in the Life Stories

I really enjoyed "Together despite all, glimpsing the distant finish" by Sarah Schweitzer. She was able to follow this man and his family right from the beginning to months later and I think she did a great job with this. It didn't feel unorganized or lacking, and it also wasn't overbearing with details. Schweitzer gave the perfect amount of information and details and really brought the reader into their world. I like how she talked to so many people. She focused a lot on Marc's fiancee which I found to be an interesting perspective because usually the victim gets the most attention. This article shows how it affects the people around the victim as well though. I would have liked to see a little bit more of the son but I understand that he is young and also wasn't around a lot because he was staying with his grandmother. Schweitzer also talked to/observed other family members and family friends which I thought was important because it showed some outside perspective. I liked how Schweitzer showed Marc and the others in a few different environments such as the home and the hospital. It showed Marc's journey. One of my favorite things about this article is that it really showed the human side of these people and didn't shy away from anything. Schweitzer mentioned the fighting and the rude comments between Marc and Jen. She didn't try to make it seem like this happened to perfect people. Everyone has flaws and she didn't cover them up just because they were affected by tragedy. She showed who they really were and let the reader see all the different sides of them. I thought this story was great and very well-written.

Another day in the life story that I read was "Elite Korean schools, forging ivy league skills" by Sam Dillon. This one was much different from the Boston marathon bombing one but I still really liked it. It showed a world that most Americans don't understand from the inside. I think this made it easier to understand these kids' lifestyles and why/how they study so much. It was really interesting to me. I like that although this was a day in the life of a particular school, it was also a day in the life about people as well since it followed the same ones throughout. I really enjoyed this piece.

My favorite day in the life story that I read was "Reading underground" by Alexis Mainland. I love books and reading and I want to live in New York City so badly so this article basically described the life I want to live. What I really liked about this was that it was a much different angle than what one would expect when reading a story about the NYC subway. She looked at it through books and I thought this was very unique and interesting. Not only was she able to see what people were reading though, she was able to take a peek into their lives and see how what they were reading said about who they were and what they were doing in life. I thought this was well done and it was very entertaining to read. Mainland wrote a day in the life of a particular place but she was able to do a peek into the lives of people. That was really cool to me. I also like how she framed the article in sections based on how/what people read and where they were. This grounded it a little more and gave each section a theme instead of it being random. I loved this piece.