Reflection

What did you enjoy about this project?

Through this project, I was able to speak and develop relationship with others who may see things different than me, and additionally have very different experiences than me. The thing I enjoyed the most was getting to know Darsh through a Skype call and learn a little bit about his personality in doing so. He had so many great things to say and really made me think in a different way about how the world should go about solving certain social issues that root from a lack of knowledge.

What surprised you about this project?

I was surprised by how much I changed my thesis topic. There were so many different varibales that I could have honed in on regarding Darsh and his story. I decided to focus on the way that different perspectives manipulate history because I think it applies to the bigger picture of history and the creation of history, which then turned my project into a case study of this concept.

What was the most challenging aspect of the project, and how did you manage it?

The most challenging aspect of this project was trying to remain unbias throughout.This topic is something that I am extremely passionate about, so it was difficult to keep my voice out of certain areas of my writing. I tried very hard to do this, but I do see areas where I could still improve on this and avoid making generalizations based on prior beliefs.

If you could start over, what would you do differently?

If I could start over, I would have retreived a bit more background information on things like post 9/11 America and the general attitudes of various people and why they think the way they do. I would do so through exploring scholarly papers and dissertations before doing anything else. I think this would have helped build a better foundation for the interviews and historical process that followed.

What did you learn about history and/or the historical process through this project?

I learned that the historical process is messy. There are so many different perspectives and variables in each and every story that putting something together entirely independent of your own thoughts is extremely difficult. Although I already knew going into the project that history is socially constructed, I now have a deeper understanding of just HOW this pattern continues to reoccur.

What did you learn through this project that can be applied to life outside the classroom?

Darsh taught me that a very powerful way to overcome the adversity of judgement based on a lack of knowledge is through personal relationship. This transformed the way I think about how social issues should be addressed. I now place more value on really getting to know individuals as an ally of many different types of people. I believe I am now more equipped to be a part of creating social change where it is needed.