Introduction

It was sophomore year when I had first heard about the Facing History and Ourselves history elective. My sophomore history teacher, Mrs.Papetti, was trying to get a count of how many current sophomores would be interested in taking this class as a junior, since it was normally only offered to seniors. She explained that this course not only went in depth about certain history topics including the holocaust and various civil rights topics, but also provided a personal aspect. In this class you would be evaluating yourself and the decisions you make and why you make them. She explained it was really an awesome class and the teacher, Mr.Gallagher, took it very seriously and impacted all of his students. History had always been my favorite subject in school so I decided to raise my hand and have my name written down on the list of “interested sophomores” for the Facing History and Ourselves course. Today, I couldn’t be happier that I decided to take this class. Like Mrs. Papetti said a year before, this class incorporates not only in depth history topics but also provides an aspect of learning about yourself. The videos we’ve watched, stories we’ve read, and pictures we’ve held in our hands have truly changed me as a person. After taking this course, it would be a flat out lie for me to say that at times the videos didn’t  make me feel uncomfortable or make me want to run out of the room and forget about everything I had just seen,  because they did, but I know that watching these things has made me a stronger and better person. It’s almost indescribable the emotions and things you learn while taking this class and I believe that what I have learned over the past semester will stick with me forever.