Helpless in History by Skyler

Helpless in History by Skyler - June 2016 Scholarship Essay

One of the most exhausting and frustrating subjects to me is history; not because I can’t understand what happened in the past, but because I truly do not enjoying learning about history. I use to tell my mom “Mom, the only history I need to know is in the Bible and that’s it,”, but I quickly learned that’s not that case. History, to me, has a foundation in reading and memorizing events, so I have never enjoyed learning about it. It has always been hard for me to learn about the past because my mind is so set towards that future. I always think about what I need to do next and where this decision could take me, so I try not to dwell on past events. I had to quickly learn that without the past we would not be able to learn what we need to do in the future. Going into AP US History, I knew I would hate the class, but I was determined to do my best and study until I could study no longer. I would stay up until 2:00 am every morning, attempting to do my best on all the test and quizzes for the class. I have never been in a class that took all of my time and energy; everything moment I got, I would study. I knew that since I did not enjoy History, I had to do everything within my own power to study so I could pass the class.
As I studied, I saw that my memorization skills slowly grew stronger. Instead of trying to memorize every definition, I tried to take the word or person and relate it to my life. For instance, when I was learning about the war in Vietnam I tied in my knowledge I learned in class to a movie I had recently watched called “Little Boy”. The movie helped me keep the information rather than forget about everything I had studied on the night before. Although this handy memorization trick works on definitions, I still have trouble with the reading. I have a hard time translating what I read into a real life scenario. I know that in order to improve in my reading skills, I will need to continue to practice my reading and read more. I hope that as I read, the words will come alive and will easily shift into a reality for me. Just like in any sport or game, practice makes perfect, so I will continue to work hard to not only pass any history class, but also to become more knowledgeable on the past so I can help the future.