Making History

Like thousands of other people around the country and world, I watched President Obama's inauguration yesterday.  I was glued to the television for the entire morning and most of the evening watching the events with my roommate.  I found myself annoyed with the phrase "we're making history".

I wish that everyone would say that to themselves every day, because in reality it is true.  Not one of us can predict the future, but the events that take place now are history.  We will never know exactly how much our day to day or even major events will impact the world, it will be laid out before the future generations to see our impact.

While others got heated about the presidential election in 2012, I took some words from one of my professors and sat back and looked at things objectively.  Just because I voted one way didn't mean that the things my candidate said would solve themselves within the first few days, weeks, months or even years.  Even if they did, I wouldn't necessarily see the impact of those things on my country for at least twenty years down the road.

While we are making history every second of every day, I think that many people take it for granted and confuse large events are the only things to make it in history.  In twenty years my friends' children might be reading of these big events in their history text books, but you can only put so much history in one book (yes, surprise, surprise, we have to pick and chose which is the most important to learn about).

I guess, in a simplified version, that I feel like many people are always thinking and living in the present instead of thinking ahead to the coming years.

- Jessie