I’ve been chugging along like everybody else in these incredible times, not a day goes by where I don’t look up the tally for this scourge and be saddened by the gravity of the pandemic.

I know that this is only the beginning of this year long journey and I am anxious like the rest of the world of what is to come. A part of me believes that the world will end and succumb to this virus, but I was raised to not be such a pessimist. The only thing that makes me think that way is what I read.

I have red more and more books over the past couple years, more than I have ever red in my entire high school years. I feel like my mind is not as bored like everyone else’s, as I see posts about how people are finding mundane ways to pass the time. Every chance I get, I have been reading The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer, and I am blown away by the earliest accounts of human history. I am amazed to read about the earliest kings and peoples of the ancient world and wonder of what they would think of our world today.?

The first thing that comes to mind is that they would have chugged along just as normally as most of us do today, we all have universal struggles and what may seem like a daunting task for us today, would have been a piece of cake for the ancients. A firm hand and an unscrupulous resolve is all it takes to securely gain a spot in the annals of history and time.

I often think of the ones who came before me, the ones whose genes I encapsulate and fawn about with through my life. What did they see and feel, what did they dread or love? What wonders did they dream about? What seemed surreal to them? I would give anything to know the ones who shaped my existence in the most personal of ways.

Though I may be young and inexperienced, I feel like I am growing every single day, and I believe that is what is most important for a virtuous existence. I am that which must always overcome itself, these paths laid out before us will be dark, but I will be watching out for the next thing to learn and become accustomed to. It is true what Cicero said, “that life without learning is death”, for if you live without exhausting for knowledge then you might as well not exist.

Who knows maybe someone you read about in a history book is actually related to you in some imaginative way, but on the other hand, think on the people in the shadows of history! Think about what they learned in their times of extraordinary strife and elegant peace. Think about what you can do in these surreal times?