How does the human mind work? Will anyone ever truly know? The human brain is such a complicated and intricate network of passageways. Millions of signals pass through the brain each second and command us in our everyday lives. How do we manage to get just one or two thoughts down on paper when there are millions of them rushing through our minds all at once?
Well, for me, when writing a paper I can't just focus on a few thoughts or ideas, I have to let it all out. Sometimes I will have five or six great ideas and the only way to organize them is to scribble them all down. For the Kite Runner essay in particular, there were numerous feelings, thoughts, ideas, and opinions I had about the book. Things such as character relationships, plot twists, sensory language and detail, and metaphors all came into my mind. It was difficult for me to pick only one to write about. In the end I chose to write about the significance of the kite, the simple toy that the author, Khaled Hosseini, uses to connect events in Amir's past and present life. I chose to write about something I thought most people would not consider for their essay. I decided to use the kite as the main focus of my essay because, although the kite seems to be only a simple plaything for many people, it became the axis around which Amir's life revolved.
What surprises me most about my way of thinking is the wide variety of topics that come to my mind when asked to write about something. It is always a challenge for me to pick one specific thing to write about, but I always find a way to support my thoughts and make them into well- written and detailed works. But not only that, I also like the fact that I can process so many different ideas at once. This gives me the chance to see how well one idea might work in an essay and how badly another might turn out, in other words, a "dead end" thought. My thought process is very similar to a math problem: I start by getting an idea of how I am going to do the work, then I start to plug in different thoughts (numbers). Then I work out the problem with the number I hope will give me the correct answer. If it doesn't, I go back to the drawing board and plug in a new number. I continue to do this until I find a number that satisfies the equation. In other words, my thought process is very similar to a guess-and-check math problem. I plug in one idea and if it brings me to a dead end, I plug in a new thought. I keep doing this until I get an idea that leads me somewhere, which hopefully satisfies the problem and makes for a good essay.
One thing I would like to change about my thought process that not only pertains to writing, but is also relevant to just about everything I am required to think about, is depth. Often times when I am forced to think about something, I merely skim the surface, giving answers or explanations with as little detail as possible, just so I can get by with the bare minimum. Sometimes, however, I do think with great depth and I am satisfied with other thoughts that arise as a result. But I don't want to change the way I think, I want to enhance my ability to think with more depth all the time, not just sometimes.
A brain is one of the most vital organs in our bodies. It keeps us alive; more than that, it keeps our thoughts flowing from our head, down to our fingertips, through the pen, and onto the paper. Writers utilize their thought process, and their brains thank them by creating great works.
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