Week #12 Reflection

If I am going, to be honest, I have no clue how to reflect on this past week. The work session for Simulation 2 was a much-needed easement into the week. Only having to meet up with the group and discuss our possible strategies within the means of our country was quite nice. I really enjoyed the relaxed environment that we found ourselves in, especially with the long reading of The Conquest of America. While the introduction and the first part of the book were enjoyable to read, Todorov quite enjoys dragging out his point at times. The style of writing aside I found Todorov’s perspective on Columbus quite interesting. Going through two different systems of education while growing up there were two constantly shifting ideas on Columbus. In Catholic school, Columbus was treated like a great hero who was the sole founder of the modern world. In public school, I was taught for the first time about Columbus’s brutality and the essential opening of the Americas to European nationality. Todorov’s perspective on the matter took bits and pieces from each viewpoint and presented Columbus and his inherent motivations in ways I had never before considered. Of course, I grew up learning about the 3 G’s: God, gold, and glory, but I hadn’t ever considered Columbus’s motivation for Spanish patronage in the context of the crusades. I especially liked the discussion we had in class on Thursday. The discussion on the discovery and chosen ignorance was quite eye-opening and many good points were brought up. Obviously, we still have two more days to discuss the rest of the book, but I’m excited to see how these specific points evolve over the next week. 

With that being said, this week threw me off. Part of that might have been that I came back midday Sunday from home and didn’t really have any time to prep for the week ahead. Part of it might’ve been that I don’t have to follow the schedule of a blog post, comment, and reflection as in past weeks. Although I will still post, for extra credit purposes, of course, falling off schedule really throws off my mental time management and schedule. This whole week I fell prone to serious procrastination. I kept pushing off assignments because I was too tired or wanted to watch some of my old favorites on Disney +. Of course, this took priority over many assignments because how could it not with every Star Wars, Disney, and Marvel movies. I realize I’m going off on a tangent, but it honestly is the most productive thing I have accomplished this week. I found movies from my childhood that I haven’t watched in years like Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. If I’m going to be completely honest I will probably spend the majority of my weekend catching up on my old VHS favorites and I could not be more excited! There can be a lot of lessons learned not only from Todorov but also from Star Wars movies which I believe go hand in hand with international relations debates.