A Few Thoughts In Between the Mayhem

The past two weeks have been the most overwhelming of any new semester. I’ve poured over atlases of Ancient Indian empires, been covered in oil paints, made a thousand coffee drinks and have spent the few hours I’ve had to eat, drink, or sleep finalizing my application for Paris. However, there have been a few moments in between that have made all the rest worth it.

When I walked to Painting this morning, I was pleasantly suprised by a second day of snow. After Boston, I never thought I would like snow again, but I forgot how beautiful it is here. I had forgotten what it feels like to be standing completely alone watching it fall. As much as I hate to sound like I sell my own soap at the saturdday market, Oregon snow admist a thick forest of evergreens is something that makes me remember why I live here.

One of the reasons this semester is so hectic is my historical materials class. It’s a class that will make me love and hate history. The main assignment allows me to pick a 25 some page document that has not been heavily annotated and present, annotate, and analyse it in a massive paper. However, this could be anything from my Grandmother’s diary, World War II love letters, Foreign Consulate documents, etc. It’s vast and frightening, but mostly so in that I have a world of experiences, thoughts, and humanity before me open to be explored.

 

On this note, I have been reading blogs from France in hopes of improving my french. This has led me to the discovery that there is an obscure published version of Marie Antoinette ’s diary. It is untranslated and, so far, I can only find it on Amazon France, but that would be incredible to read. She may not be the most dynamic character of history, but she was definitely greatly misrepresented and led an interesting life, even if it was short. 

History is an interesting thing. Voltaire called it, “a bag of tricks we like to play on the dead” and Napoleon, “a myth we all agree to believe in.” Both allude to a stronger involvement of imagination than most people would think.  I just hope that seems equally inspiring in a month or two when I’m stuck in the library at 2 am on a Friday night.