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Sydney Sun

4/13/08

Kappa

History/Social Science Refection

Everyone has dreams and ideas for what they are going to become, or what they will

accomplish in life. But, I think that something that is overlooked is the present. I know

that many times in life I thought that I couldn't do something or didn't have the ability to

do something because I was young, or a girl, or Asian. And to comfort myself I would

tell myself that it's okay because everything was going to change in the future, and I will

be able to do all of the things that I couldn't do and I would become everything that I

dreamed that I would become; essentially I thought I would be saving everything for the

future. But, back then, it was the truth for me until I realized that I was the one holding

myself back and I was oppressing myself because of my own inhibitions and my own

refusal to to change and critique myself and my weaknesses. Now that I have had my

realization, I developed a very strong sense of social responsibility, which, I believe and

am very conscience that what I do needs to be for more than just myself. That part of my

responsibility in life is to make sure that others can live and be comfortable and are able



to have the some or the same freedoms that I do and that not one person should be

subjected to maltreatment because of where they live, who they are, or anything that

makes up who they end up being. I know that I can't take on all of this and there is a

huge possibility that those issues won't even be fixed in my life time, but as of now I see

myself as a person who is on the road of becoming someone who will be able to make a

difference, and leave this place nicer than I found it.

I have always known that I will be on the path of academics and learning for a long

time. But, it always felt intangible because it was far away because it would be 12 years

from now when I can exit academia. That road always seemed mysterious and daunting

because I didn't know even in general where I was going to end up, or how I was going to

get there, or most importantly how I was going to finance all of it, which is something

that I have/had to take under serious consideration because that is reality. Doing the

personal finance unit I could "feel" how long it’s going to be and all of the different jobs

that I will have to do. The unit, in a way feels like I have set something in stone, and that

I could see my future path physically and not as ideas jumbled in my mind as a bunch of

different possibilities. The unit also acts as encouragement, because I can look back at it

and realize that, that was and is a path that I wanted, so if I every stray away from it, the

unit acts like a base. Especially the "Happiness Chart", I know that I have\, listed a lot of

travel destinations, and I have all of these wants outside of my academic reality. But,

because I have the goal of helping the world, I know that I have to give up some of the



things that I want to do. I also know that I have to live for me, and that I need to take

breaks and make sure that I am okay first and foremost because if I am not okay then I

can't help other people to the best of my capabilities, which would be worse than not

helping. Reaching a point in my life where I stop living for me and start to lack passion

because I've been so bogged down with work, is something that becomes a target because

I know that I have to create a balance between giving and replenishing.

Looking at the past and learning about it has shaped a lot of my aspirations. A lot of my

views on politics, and human nature has come from examining people of the past. Which

was why the Human Nature Paper was very interesting to me because I always had all of

these ideas on what I thought people were like and I always was interested in philosophy

and the human nature paper allowed me to take that part of me and apply to a historical

context. Studying about human nature and studying philosophy and coming up with my

own beliefs gives me something to apply to history, and it's figures. Using my

philosophies and studying I concretely and thoroughly believe that nothing is more

important than compassion. It doesn't matter what rung you are in the ladder or society

of what color you are or how much money you have, issues get solved because of

compassion and the way to combat "ugliness" is with compassion. Using compassion as

a base and then adding anything else to it is like building up an arsenal. Also, one of the

most obvious reasons why history is so important is because it allows me to look back

and learn from others mistakes and figure out what they could have done to turn the



situation around.

Life is short, but examining history allows me to in a sense live more life than I have,

because studying, learning, and then figuring out the issues that occurred is like stealing

experiences. And it’s the examination of experiences that more experiences and wisdom

is built. I can look back at the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, and how the university

students fought against that intrusion. I can take their strategies, fix their strategies, and

take their patriotism and sacrifice and acclimate them to my beliefs. I can take the

Rwandan genocide, and figure out what it is that fuels violence of that magnitude and

how strategically that panned out. Also, learning more about different genocides or other

situations I can compare and contrast them, and that opens a whole new can of worms of

material that I can learn and absorb. And some topics that have already been presented to

me is racism and classism and how that plays into the interpretation and understanding of

history. Learning history is part of figuring out why things are the way they are, and

understanding that gives people the opportunity to fix the issues at the root. Having the

opportunity to study history gives me the chance to get all of these attributes which I can

put toward helping the world, finding my balance, and to continue down the road I'm on

to become the person that I desire to be.

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