After finishing  my first year at university, it’s interesting to see how my views on the past have changed. I’ve always been very interested in learning history and learning about many different points in the past that have occurred, but I’ve found I’m getting more and more into it. Before I started university, my main point of interest in history was military history from around 1900 to the present day. While this has not exactly changed, I have found that I am getting more and more interested in events far before the period I’ve been focused so intently on.

Even the title itself, “Reflecting on the Past,” has so much more behind it. Anyone living in this current era can look out their window or around their house and find something sitting there and wonder, “How did this object get here?” That’s the brilliant thing about history; it explains how cultures, objects, countries, and almost everything around you has gotten to the point that it is currently at. As I sit here typing this, I can see my barbecue out on my patio and I can easily look up the history of the barbecue and it’s influence on peoples lives. It is even hard to know yourself, in a way, without looking into history. Without reflecting on my past, I would not have known of my French-Canadian past on my mother’s side or how a part of my descendants on my father’s side came from a German colony in Russia many years ago.

As my studies continue, I have no doubt that I will continue studying history, and continue to be amazed by all the different topics. My main outlook on it right now is simple:

Reflecting on the Past.