Making the Most of It

I realized that I didn't have much time left in New York so I wanted to do more with the free time I had. Being the fourth of July and my chaperon Joyce gave us complete freedom, I was able to do whatever I wanted. I decided to go back to the Metropolitan Museum with my friend Derek because Columbia students get in free. He hadn't seen the museum at all and I wanted to go see the famous paintings by Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. The only reason I knew their paintings were there was because Joyce told me, and the reason I knew who they were was because I studied them when I was taking French in middle school. Shout out to Madame Johnson at Juan Crespi middle school, her class impacted my day today.

I was at the Museum and having the second look at it I was able to ponder more upon the paintings. I can't even begin to imagine trying to make art with the primitive tools they had. These people were just truly amazing and had the most distinct styles. See I would go deeper into this, but then again I'm not a critic. I'm just blessed enough to be there and I'm happy just looking at them without comparing. At the same time I saw some of the medieval armor that was used all over the world. I saw samurai equipment and knight's armor which are both completely different.

Next I went to the Jewish Heritage Museum which also focused on the holocaust. It was such a powerful museum I mainly went because this year I took a World War two class and my teacher had so much to say about Jewish history. Going off this class, I wanted to see if I could find something my teacher didn't know because I knew how much of a fanatic she was on Jewish people and the holocaust. It was also just a great experience because I was able to get a sense of what the Jewish victims experienced, but not at all the same. After the class I took, I wanted to feel their emotion, their pain, I felt as if I needed to learn more so I was able to truly reflect on that tragic event. I can say that there were a lot of personal items in there that I thought I could relate to. I felt that I needed to get really into the history so I can truly understand what happened and then be able to pay my respects. At the end of the exhibition there was a place to leave a message and I left the message, "You will live on through our hearts, I will remember you forever. Spread love instead of hatred." I just wanted to take the time to reflect on the event and then be able to spread what I learned and tell people that hatred is no joke. That's one of the main reason I don't say I hate you, it's such a loaded word and has so much meaning behind it. I believe that the holocaust seeded from the concept of hate, and I would sure love to stop spreading hate. This is one of my reason to stay positive in life, so I won't have to release any negative energy or give negative energy to anyone else.

Aside from the touching museums I went to watch the fireworks with my friend Whitt from Georgia, and to make it even better I saw the famous bull and then watched the fireworks underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

My view

Whitt Van Tassel and I.