Justin Riccio

Prof. Gracer

Composition I

30 November 2019

The Liquid of Life

When this prompt was first pitched to us, it was definitely a curveball that was thrown at

the class. I was a bit… flabbergasted at the idea of tracking my liquid consumption over the

course of a week, but alas I gave it a shot. I drank a lot more water than anything else, but had

the occasional glass of milk or orange juice. I guess I also drink a lot of snapple iced tea as well.

But the weirdest part out of this entire assignment had to be the prompt I had to say while taking

a pee. Not only do I have to A) drink water while peeing, but I also had to B) say the phrase

“water is sacred water is life”. However, this is a gracer paper. So I figure I’d give it a shot since

it probably has some type of particular significance. And the reaction / response I got was

definitely particular.

I started just keeping the log, I say my “liquid diet” consisted of about a 70/30 mix of a

whole bunch of things. 70% water and 30% Orange Juice, Milk, Snapple, the occasional soda,

and even a little cup of apple juice to ease the nerves. All this I kept in the notes section of my

phone so I could keep track of what was going on during this week of tracking. Even though I

predominantly drank water, I still do not drink enough liquids. The average liquid consumption

for a human male is approximately 112 oz of liquid a day. I get around ½ to 2⁄3 of that. Which

isn’t bad, it definitely has no benefits to it. So while I was sipping my water, I tried to pay closer
attention to the amount I was drinking rather than what I was drinking. Needless to say, I was

able to get my numbers up closer to ¾ of what I needed daily, and I even went above and beyond

on the final day and drank over a gallon of water! Which made my stomach feel like a raging sea

confined to my belly. But, it was an achievement I can say I did and did right.

Now this is where it begins to get funky. This is where the peeing part of the prompt

comes in, and to be honest… I was not sure what to expect going into this, I thought I was just

gonna leisurely say something while I pissed and then be done with it. But what ended up

happening was, while in the middle of doing my pee chant; my dad decided to knock on the door

and ask “What in god's name are you saying?”. So it seemed like my dad heard me say “WATER

IS SACRED WATER IS LIFE” while I let the ol’ hydrant loose. Not to side track, but I have had

a few embarrassing moments in my lifetime. I’ve cried in front of my entire 5th grade before,

I’ve fallen down staircases in my schools, and I’ve been caught red handed before doing stupid

stuff in my middle school. But I have NEVER been more embarrassed when my dad came in,

and asked me why I am peeing, drinking water, and talking about the sacred values of water. I

turned redder than a sea full of seaweed, I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. My dad; stumbles

across his kid saying a water chant in the midst of a piss. I didn’t even want to know what he was

thinking, I just wanted him to vacate the premises. Perhaps him vacating the country would have

been better. Anything would’ve been good besides THIS OUTCOME. So of course I explain and

elaborate to make sure he gets a better understanding, and he doesn’t. But the weight was now no

longer on my shoulders. I tried to tell him and now it isn’t on me.

In the end, this was one of the more weird research papers, when I tried to look up “weird

facts about water” all the stuff that came up I had already seen. I did a lot of digging and found a
more crazy fact instead of bizarre. I found out that collectively, South African women and

children walk a total of 16 times to the moon and back * to get water for them and their villages.

The fact that they have to walk that distance just to get semi-clean water is beyond insanity. They

should not have to go to such ridiculous lengths just so they can sustain life. They should be able

to have it readily accessible like us. Obviously, there are various circumstances that restrict that

ability (for now) but it is an easy obstacle we should be able to overcome. After all, we are water.

And water is sacred, water is life.