Friday, December 19, 2008

Some Sort of Reflection


Studying the Holocaust in depth, as we did this semester, was kind of difficult. It is hard to learn about something so horrific. I always thought I had a good grasp on what happened, but I can't tell you how many times my jaw dropped this semester, or a tear escaped from my eye in class. The real stories of the people who went through that make it so much more real. You learn that this mass killing happened, but when you think about how we live now you kind of imagine some villain in a movie or some horror novel. Its hard to grasp that it really happened and not more than eighty years ago. I have grandparents that saw the holocaust, that are still alive today. How can something so horrible have happened so recently in history? I'd like to think I'm a part of a people that has good buried deep down, no matter how messed up their exterior is. The fact of the matter is that the Nazis cannot have good anywhere in their sadistic souls so it makes me question the people I live around. More than anything this experience has opened my eyes to see that if you are in the dark about your history, your future can seem blurry. You should learn from the mistakes of the past and know when to fight your fight.

Blogging was a great experience. This is actually not my first experience with blogging, I blog in another one of your classes and I have blogged online for a few years. I really liked that there was not really any actual pencil/pen work to do in the class, because I can type so much faster than I write!! Its a lot easier to go back and edit your work and keep everything organized when you never have to wonder what something said or think you lost it. It was also a lot easier than I would have imagined to team up with another class and do collaborations. I liked how that went, but I think that in the future we should get web cams so that instead of always doing our ideas against theirs, we could do mixed groups and really get diverse ideas and conversations going. It would be really cool to talk with these people, and actually hear their voice. I am very opinionated and this experience was one of the few times in school where people asked me, "How do YOU feel about that?" Putting your thoughts and ideas out there is an awesome thing. When someone would comment me, I thought to myself that its an amazing thing when people can connect and understand each other. Whether we all agreed or not this experience not only taught me about our past, but also how to work with people from all walks of life.

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