Posted by emily on Saturday, May 13, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

Being a science major, this trip definitely takes me out of my element as far as all the history material that we have been learning so far. Although the sites are so interesting and beautiful, sometimes all the history presented takes away from the site itself. The first excursion to Solunto was a perfect example of when the material got too dense for me to keep up and as I was walking through the ruins the bus started sounding more and more desirable.

The next site visit I was recharged and ready to listen! We arrived in Mozia after our 3 hour bus ride and immediately got onto a little ferry to take us across to the island of Mozia. There were little kids on the ferry so being the camp counselor that I am, I started talking to them and asking simple questions like “Come ti chiami?” and “Quanti anni hai?” They answered, but then just stared at me for the rest of the ferry ride which honestly has been a common theme throughout my time in Sicily.

But even after visiting Mozia what I focused on was my interactions with the Italian children on the ferry rather than the actual history lesson presented at the site. On the bus driving from Mozia to our next site, Segesta, I started thinking to myself, maybe history just isn’t for me. It is one thing to get bored in a history class at school when all you are learning is from textbooks and pictures, but the fact that so much history is literally in front of me and I still can’t bring myself to like it was a bit shocking to me. I thought what I needed was hands on history but that wasn’t working. I started getting worried.

But then…Segesta came along! This is where things started to really click for me. Standing next to the huge temple realizing I was a fraction of the height of this temple I thought to myself how could they have made this with no cranes or construction equipment? Who or what did this? Where did the stone they used even come from?

And then the history lesson on the temple started. Doing my best to try to listen and pay attention I braced myself as I do every time with a history lesson. But then as I started listening I realized, our guide started answering all the questions I had in my head! This was the coolest thing for me because this had never happened before. I figured out my problem with enjoying history. My issue was the way I thought about it. I never actually asked myself questions in my head, instead, I always just let all the information be given to me. I would just accept that I had to learn it which is why history has always been awful for me.

Although there was no striking event that took place that day, it was a day of self discovery which is an amazing experience in itself.