Observing The Familiar Essay, Research Paper

Observing the Familiar: Vegetables and Fruits I was given a bag with a fruit inside, handed to me by my brother. I was not aware of what type of fruit was in the bag. When I received the bag, I began to feel the fruit and poke it with my left index finger. My first guess was that the fruit was an apple due to the fact it was round and smooth I was wrong.I was beginning to get upset when I could not name the type of fruit in the bag after 10 minutes. I decided to then poke my finger into the fruit; it felt gooey and soft. I then guessed that it was an orange; once again I was wrong. An orange has a rough texture not a smooth one.At this point in time I thought my brother could have been playing a trick on me and that it was something other than a fruit; but he assured me it was a fruit. As I was beginning to feel irritated, I finally guessed that it was a tomato. I was relieved and delighted to hear him tell me I was right.I then took the tomato out of the plastic bag and looked it over. I observed many things about the tomato. I saw many detailed parts or items on the tomato I have never noticed or looked at before. These areas are not very obvious unless you look the tomato over carefully.The most obvious thing I observed about the tomato was that it is red and has a big hole in the center, where my finger had poked through it. It also had a noticeable brown circle on the top where it used to be attached to a vine. This circle was about the size of a dime.The circle on the top was made up of three shades of brown. The outer edge was a dark brown, while the inner area of the circle was a light brown. In between the dark brown and light brown, it looked to be tan or an extremely light brown. The tomato also had many different brown spots in various areas.Near these brown spots there was often a wrinkle in the tomato s skin and these areas were softer and squishier than the healthier parts of the tomato. Some parts were so squishy I could barely press my finger against it and the tomato s skin would break. It was clear to me that my brother had chosen an older tomato.At this point, I was beginning to enjoy observing the tomato. I decided to now open the tomato and describe the inside. To open the tomato, I put my right index finger on a soft area and slightly pushed until my finger entered. I then took a piece of the tomato s skin and tore it off, revealing the inside.

The inside was made up of a light red slushy substance. This slushy substance looked to be pushed together by the tomato s skin to make a hard substance. The slushy substance felt weird and watery when I put some on my hand. When rubbed on my hand, the slushy substance disappeared into water that then dissolved into my skin.It was becoming clear to me while observing the tomato that I had not really put much thought into observing tomatoes before. I was enjoying poking my finger into the tomato and feeling the different sensations the tomato had to offer. The inside of the tomato had a much healthier look than the outside. There were no brown areas inside the tomato except for the seeds.The tomato began to feel warm in the palm of my hand. As it became warm, the tomato softened. The skin was easily breakable in these areas of softness. The warm feeling of the tomato made it look rotten and older than it really was. I then began to smell the tomato.The smell of the tomato was refreshing and relaxing but had a touch of excitement to it. This is not the smell of a fresh tomato, however. The smell was warm and not cool; the tomato has been out of its refrigerated environment for about forty-five minutes now. While observing the smell; it became clear to me this tomato had a smell that made me want to eat it.I took a good piece of the tomato that had no bruising or wrinkles and put it into my mouth. Much like it s fresh smell, the tomato had a fresh taste. While eating the tomato, it s rough texture became soft and slushy. The feeling of the tomato in my mouth was weird. When the tomato become slushy, I swished it around from side to side within my mouth. This was interesting because the faster I swished the tomato, the quicker it dissolved into my mouth.During this project, it was interesting that I was becoming bored while observing obvious features of the tomato. Though, as soon as I began to find new features, the assignment became very interesting and made me curious. I now understand that when looking at things, I do not really focus all of my attention on all the observable characteristics.