Our Stories Make History
In this unit for humanities during the coronavirus crisis, we all made compilations of experiences we have been enduring. This primary source might one day in the future reach the ears and eyes of people who struggle to decipher the truth of the year 2020. Through our written words they might discover what would be so precious for them to find out about this historical time, and it is for this that we create something that might one day do just that.
In my primary source, there are several things that I compiled. There is a picture collage that gives a vague idea of what I’ve been doing and how I’ve been feeling, then there is the emotional timeline that goes after the collage, giving a deeper definition of my life for the past months. To make the events in the timeline more true and more lively, I have journal entries in there as well, talking more about my stories and experiences. I have a video taken of my cooking show that I decided to do to symbolize what I’ve been doing a lot of with my mom, which is cooking and exploring all kinds of food. There are information extracted from articles and graphs, which reveals the informational side of all this. I have an extra booklist that did a great job to connect my experiences with that of the characters, especially emotionally. These materials together achieves a balance between fact and feeling, which was perhaps why I chose to do what I did.
This primary source will help historians in the future because it gives a different side of view. People might look at news articles now and learn about events; they might look at statistics to see numbers; they might read books that show them problems and solutions. What they can’t see is a journal entry about a teenager’s thoughts and stories, which really reveals so much of how it really is. That is why our stories are so treasurable.
What I’m really proud of is how I sifted through all my materials and chose the ones that have a great compact. I also think I did a good job to include feeling in the journal entries and all the small sections, which was what I really tried hard to do. Of course, it was also the hardest part of this project.
What I noticed during the making and writing of all the sources was that it is sometimes hard to grasp that emotional part inside and really use it well to showcase both truth and opinion. During such a hard time right now, it’s easy to feel stiff and unaware of somethings, and those somethings are exactly what I wished to bring out. I would find myself trying desperately to feel what I’d been feeling at a certain time, but couldn’t, because it seemed impossible to reach.
After weeks of brain-wrecking thinking work, though, the final project came out, and this is it right here:
the Time the World Went Pandemic (2)
We are living in a time that people in the future would want to look back upon, and our stories make history.
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