I was eating a Barbeque sandwhich.

A narrative essay written for an English composition class.

     I was eating a barbeque sandwich. It was late in the evening on a Wednesday and I was exhausted when I thought to myself, “Wow, I love barbeque.” Then I began to ponder like all great ponderers do: “What is the meaning of life?” “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “Where do bad folks go when they die?” “Do all dogs go to heaven?” but more importantly, “Where does barbeque come from?” That is when it all started, when everything changed, I would begin my search with the awesome power of the interweb.

A Narrative Essay by Robert Erickson

      I began by turning on my Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop, typing in my administrative password, submitting it, awaiting verification, and holding my breath for Microsoft Windows Vista to finish loading. I had decided that my adventure would begin by directly submitting my query with the interweb oracle that is Google.com. I typed, “Where does barbeque come from?” directly into the Google.com search box and awaited the results. Moments later I was delighted to find out that Google.com did not like the way I had spelled barbeque. Being one who hates to be corrected, I decided that I would research the spelling of the word barbeque in order to understand where the word came from. I opened up a new search and this time searched for its definition in hopes of ascertaining its origin.

      A search result indicated to me that wiki.answers.com would be able to identify the origin of the word and to my delight I was able to take a step in the right direction. I was informed by user WikiWriter that the word is American-Spanish in origin descending from the word ‘barbacoa’. Research on Wikipedia lead me to believe that the word ‘barbacoa’ comes from a group of Native Americans called the Taino. Its meaning refers to meats slowly cooked in a hole that is dug in the ground and covered with leaves from the Maguey plant. The modern meaning of ‘Barbacoa’, ‘Barbeque’, or ‘Barbecue’ is commonly transcribed as meat being cooked and steamed very slowly until it becomes very tender.

      So far my search had led me to many places: google.com, wiki.answers.com, and en.wikipedia.org. I had to look many places to find out the information I wanted. I had to read many titles, paragraphs, sentences, words, and letters. I was quickly becoming overwhelmed. My head hurt like a m**********r. How was I supposed to make sense of all these words spinning around in my head like drunken butterflies? I decided that if I wanted to finish writing this paper and find out where the barbeque comes from I would have to take some time to pause and reflect upon what I had learned then I would have to attack the question directly.

      After lighting some tobacco afire and breathing in the smoke I was able to clear my head and return to the issue that lead me to google.com in the first place, “Where does barbeque come from?” It was apparent immediately that wiki.answers.com would be no help to me at all. Even the oracle google.com was not being much help to me anymore. It seems that these places were a great place to find out where the word barbeque came from but if I wanted to find out how barbeque comes into being I would have to redefine my search. I was faced with a tough decision; the question I was asking was not working out for me. How would I change my question in order to find the information I was looking for?

     I decided that I would attempt to search for, “How is barbeque made?” and hope that it gave me the information I required. It seems that not a lot of people were asking the same questions as me. None of my searches generated the desired results and I still couldn’t find what the heck I was looking for. It was then that I decided that the best action was to go back and reexamine Wikipedia’s BBQ entry. It had so much information I didn’t know what to do with it all. These letters and words were obviously going to be a problem again. How would I make sense of it all? I buckled down and began to search for what I was looking for, “Where does barbeque come from?”

      I was delighted to finally find out that the barbeque originally was made from pork which is a type of pig. Some barbeque even comes from other meats that are not pig. Barbeque can be made from beef, a type of cow. Barbeque can also come from mutton, a type of sheep. It seems to me that barbeque can be made from just about any type of land animal. I was surprised to find out it can even be made from venison, a type of deer, as well as chicken, a type of chicken. As astounding as that was I was even more delighted to find out that almost every place has its own zesty flavorful recipe of barbeque. From North Carolina barbeque to Virginia barbeque all kinds of peoples in all kinds of different places were making distinct recipes for the barbeque. With so many different types of barbeque out there it seemed like it was going to be nearly impossible to try them all but I decided that I would make it my life's mission to do the best that I can.

      All of this information was very informative. I learned a lot about barbeque and I learned a lot about myself as well. I learned that barbeque comes from a Native American word. I learned that barbeque comes from different animals. I was delighted to discover that barbeque has lots of different recipes. I also learned that I was very hungry and after I finished my paper I decided I was going to go eat some more barbeque. I went back to the kitchen with a new lust for a life and a strong sense of determination. I was going to enter the world with a new mission, a new purpose, I was going taste as many different types of barbeque as I could before I died.