Susanna Malacky

Rambling Reflections from WAIP

Being a part of WAIP and having the opportunity to live in our nation's capital has caused me to see our nation’s history in a new way, and I no longer feel like a passenger or onlooker just watching while events occur. I feel present in what is happening around me and I feel like I can contribute, which is an amazing and empowering, but new emotion for me. Living in Ohio and watching the news and seeing posts on twitter about what is happening around the country had caused me to become complacent and apathetic to things that have been going on. I had adopted this mentality where I would say “well that is happening far away. Yes, it affects me, and yes, I care, but what can I really do?” I think DC has caused me to be much more present in what is happening around me for a number of reasons.

The many buildings and museums full of history and knowledge in DC definitely altered my perception. I enjoyed going to a new museum every weekend and seeing artifacts hundreds, or thousands of years old, things I had only ever read about. Seeing such artifacts really made me think about time. It's hard to stand in front of the Declaration of Independence and imagine a room full of men signing it because it looks like an old piece of paper and that's all I have ever seen it as, but it is the same document which those men signed years ago and started this nation. It was a bizarre emotion to go to Mount Vernon and tour George Washington’s house and think “wow he lived here. People slept in here. People experienced happiness and sorrow here.” There are many mundane things in DC which have become history. I think about the African American History and Culture Museum in which people donated their own belongings to be in the museum. Things as simple as a dress, eyeglasses, or a guitar are history in DC for all to see and experience. I think it causes me to think about the places and things I interact with daily and what significance they have now and might have in the future.

The experience the Newseum gave me has also stuck with me for a long time now. Growing up I didn't think about the news as history, it was just what is happening. At the museum they have a long video montage of news clips starting in the 1950s/60s and continuing to present day. When it started it was familiar things from history I remember learning about: the Beatles, Vietnam, AIDS, the Berlin Wall. But as it continued it turned into things I remembered seeing growing up: 9/11, Katrina, Obama’s election. There were things I had totally forgot about. It was strange to see the things that I experienced in a museum. There was a group of 2nd graders at the museum and they were watching as well, and I thought “this is crazy, they view this as history, but I experienced this.” I had never had a thought like that before. DC has caused me to pause and take a moment to think about what it was like to be someone having a particular experience 10, 20, 50, 100 years ago and what that must have been like. In turn I think this has caused me to be more aware of what experiences I am living in right now. That thought was reinforced by getting to hear from amazing speakers who lived through huge historical moments when they were my age. When we were fortunate to hear Leon Furth speak he discussed how history isn't linear, everything overlaps. Living in DC has caused me to see this truth as well. Events are not separate.

Attending the March for Our Lives event on March 24th was also a very awakening experience. I attended one of the largest marches/rallies in history. I laughed and cried with millions of people. This movement will be talked about for years to come and to the next generation it will be history. Maybe by then we won't live in a world where people are senselessly murdered by guns, or people are judged by their gender or race or ability or orientation, but right now these things do happen. Realizing this makes me fell an even greater need to change the world to one I want to see and pass on to the next generation.

This has been very rambly, but it is hard to articulate just how renewed I feel. This fresh outlook is something I hope I can hold on to when I return to Ohio. History is always happening around us, and I hope I always try my best to live in in and influence it, instead of just watching it happen.