I Assure You, No One Asked

       I always found it funny that our opinions are asked for when answering an argumentative essay. I mean come on, you're seriously telling me you care about a burnt-out 16-year-old's opinion and feelings on something that they don't even care about? I'm literally betting all of my grades that not one person who will be grading my essay for the 11 AP English Exam cares about what I have to say about anything. I obviously understand I have to do it if I wanna secure a good score, but that doesn't mean I don't see how pointless it really is. There's so many reasons why writing an argumentative essay is unnecessary, and I will share two of them in this blog post.

    First off, let's chat about the prompts that we're expected to answer. You're really asking me to share my opinions about politics, the environment, history, and just about anything else when I don't have the faintest clue as to what I'm even writing about? Like just a few days ago, I'm given an essay prompt about rewilding. Excuse me ma'am, I just walked into class two minutes ago, I got three hours of sleep last night and it's eight in the morning. Am I really expected to learn about what rewilding is and form my own thoughts on it in fifteen minutes? And then write an essay in the next 30 arguing why it's important? Um, no sir. I cannot even choose what I want to eat for dinner in that time, much less write an essay deciding which side I agree with. If you want to hear logical, thought-out opinions, how about asking specialists in the field who know what they're talking about and not high school students??? Just a thought.

    Adding onto the fact that prompts usually ask us to write on something not commonly spoken on, let me emphasize that once again, I am barely able to understand what's going on, and even when I do, I just go with what's easier to argue, which sometimes isn't the one I necessarily agree with. I only have 45 minutes to write, and I cannot sit there wasting precious time trying to explain all of my ideas. And this isn't just me, but a good majority of students. I promise you most of us don't say what we mean in our arguments. So, how can you expect me to convince you to choose my side when I can't even convince myself? I'm just saying, we don't really acknowledge this enough.

    As you can tell, argumentative essays are evidently useless, and you cannot possibly convince me otherwise. I assure you, literally no one asked for your opinion, and even if they did, they most definitely don't care. So, let's just do ourselves a favor to our cramped hands and exhausted minds and stop writing argumentative essays.