2011 Scholarship Entry #57: Breanna Mielke

Bob Marley once said 'in this bright future you can't forget your past', however it seems that many in my generation are doing just that. We were fortunate to be born into a time where the sky is no longer the limit, we have opportunities available to us that our parents and grandparents could not imagine. But in this race to discover just what we can do, the mistakes and lessons of the past are being forgotten. It is times such as these that the old adage 'history will repeat itself' becomes very true.

As a history student with plans for graduate school, I have learned to appreciate the value of the past. For the past four summers I have worked at my local museum, sharing its history with the children in the community. To see even a few of them become engrossed in what we are doing, makes me feel that what I am doing matters. I hope that by teaching children about the past, giving them a chance to try doing things the way that the pioneers did, will give them an appreciation of what they have now. To me, sharing the past with children and adults in a setting such as this reminds them of how much progress has been made and, at times, the high cost of achieving such progress. In remembering these sacrifices, we honour those who paid them, and have allowed us to thrive.

My goal in life is to study and preserve the past, so that future generations do not forget what happened before them. I agree that we should continue to look forward and make great discoveries, but not at the cost of our heritage. There is no limit to what we can do today, and I have no doubt that many in my generation will make the history books, and will be studied by the next generation of historians.