When I was in school, every once in a while I�d be assigned the task of writing an essay. Now most essays take the form of boring five page papers churned out by students who would much rather be doing just about anything else rather than writing an essay. Certainly, most of the things I wrote qualified as such. Occasionally, though, an assignment inspired me enough to put forth the effort to create something worth reading years later and sharing with other people. As I dig these mythical �actually good� essays out of their dusty tombs, I�ll add them here.