Give yourself an extra time to reflect

On November 3, 2017, I was given a second chance to revisit the Independence Hall, where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted. Although I have been to Philadelphia numerous of times before, this visit was different, I wasn’t with my husband and two kids, I was with my young fellow WIAPers.

As I listened to the narrative of the events that led to the establishment of the two most important American documents for the second time, I realized that the person I am at that moment is not the same person I was when I first heard the narration. This time I was different, I was informed, and my mind was now politically engaged and sympathetic to the patience and collaboration of each individual person that was there debating, creating, and adopting the collections of words that the American people hold dear and valued the most today.

post and picture by Grace Mercado

While I stood looking out of the same window frame that the Founding Fathers possibly looked out from over two centuries ago, I understood at that moment of how vital it was for them to find a common ground to collaborate and collect the fundamental words that played important opportunities for the future of America.

I don’t doubt that they would be proud to witness the significant changes, innovation, and the continuous strive for a better tomorrow, that we hold the same value they can only have imagined witnessing outside this building’s window.  

The smiles, the interaction between many racial diversities, and different walks of life, looking and taking pictures of the building I was in, would have been an amazing sight to see for our Founding Fathers. And although not all of them agreed with each other, they all believed in what was put in the United State Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” (Preamble of the U.S. Constitution).

To conclude, It was within those moments I became convinced that giving yourself (myself) an extra time to reflect, especially if it’s not the first time, the chance to learn or to realize something new. From that moment on, I was more humbled, blessed and thankful than ever before. I wonder what new reflection I will gain the next time I go back.