Fulfilled: Honors Course & Goal 2

Memorizing dates and names will give a person information. It will not give them the wisdom or experience to use that information to better their world or learn from the past. Over the course of this class, I moved beyond simply reading of history and began actively exploring it. I took what was placed in my hands and learned different ways to analyze it, thinking critically to evaluate its worth and usefulness. More than understanding that history is a living narrative, I began to examine that story with all its shortcomings, assumptions and biases. After accepting these I could truly determine my own opinion and begin teasing out lessons to be learned, seeing the patterns that repeated or the new directions taken by those who baized their own path.

Although not every question asked was fully answered, I emerged from the class with a much better grasp of the tools and reasoning needed to continue seeking solutions. I found solace with those who had struggled before me and worked to see how I could apply their wisdom to improve myself and the world around me. Working through their understanding framed by the world they lived in I recognized my own biases in presentism and began to see other’s actions from a new perspective not entirely theirs or my own, giving me further access into their decisions and what underlying ideas they represented.

The final paper allowed me to experiment with this new perspective as I wrote time travelers’ adventures in Ancient Rome. I explored how their biases and by extension my own may have colored my perspective and discussed controversial topics as an exchange between opinions, social constructs, and religious virtues. In writing the paper I could see how my own thoughts crossed the field and came to a better understanding of myself and those who came before me.

The above paper was completed on December 7th, 2019. It is a tale of time travelers and their divergent experiences during the time of the Jugurthine War. The text explores differences in political, social and personal values through dialogue and action.