Lovely Girl   +  writing

Newsweek's My Turn is one of my favorite personal essay columns, and this week's essay particularly caught my eye. What really works is that the author takes an almost universal experience (selling Girl Scout cookies with his daughter) and shares observations that most people probably wouldn't have on their own.I was a Girl Scout for five years (six if you count Daisy's), so I remember cookie-selling season pretty vividly. One year I canvassed the whole town and sold over 120 boxes. I found that cookies essentially sell themselves because who can resist a cute little redhead in a brownie uniform? (Don't answer if you are currently trolling the Internet for things that you really shouldn't be... ) But once I branched out into other fundraisers like selling overpriced gift wrap, I realized how hard door-to-door sales can be.When I recently bought some shortbread cookies, I had to resist the urge to tell the poor little brownie that "when I was your age, these only cost $2" (I'm really not old enough to be making those kind of statements!). I kinda feel bad for kids doing fundraisers. Just last weekend I bought a magazine subscription from my younger brother to spare him the indignity of asking his classmates or professors to support his fraternity (and of explaining why a fraternity that charges its members hundreds of dollars to join needs to fundraise in the first place... ) See how reading that column takes me back? That's what I hope to evoke in my own writing!