Changing of Times

Hi, my name is Destyni Freese. I am applying to the Context travel program because there are multiple benefits that I as an individual can bring to the Program as well myself. Of course, the obvious reason is to be able to travel to a place where very few are given the opportunity to go. However, that isn’t the only reason. The program gives me the opportunity to start off my future on the right path. I dream to become and International Corporate Finance Lawyer. In order to be able to travel around the world you must be able to be comfortable with traveling to unfamiliar places. I have never been outside of the United States before so in order to actually achieve my dream I must start somewhere. In my opinion, Paris is the perfect place to start.

While I’m in Paris I look forward to being able to experience a different culture first hand and become more knowledgeable of the Parisian History. I can’t wait to be able to go to the museums and see paintings and pictures that I’ve only had the option of viewing out of history books. I want to be able to taste the food that Paris has to offer me. I yearn to see everything I possibly can before I leave and bring it home to everyone so they can know what I know. The most amazing part is I will be able to do all of this without leaving a major negative impact on the city’s environment.

I was most intrigued by the concept of continuously changing ways of life as time passes. We can mainly visualize this through the modernistic period of Paris. We went over multiple ways in which Paris changed when it went through its modernistic period. Two are its music and art. Music before the Modernistic era was mainly based off of a religious context. As time went along, music changed from religious melodies to a smooth, never before heard type of music called Jazz. Jazz was played by multiple people and could be played in a relaxed setting like clubs. Religious music was only played in a sophisticated setting. Art changed as well. The traditional ways of art was realistic paintings with a twist of religion. Once it was modernized it became abstract and colorful. A painter we all know is Pablo Picasso. His paintings are some of the many that came out of that time period that challenged the traditional ways of art.

The Changing of Paris’s cultural norms as it grew reminded me a lot of myself as an individual and everyone as a society. No one has the same ways that they had as children when they are teenagers and most adults don’t have the same ways as they did when they were teenagers. I know I’m always changing. For example, I used to love tomatoes as a child. I would sit with the refrigerator door open eating a tomato like it was a peach. As I grew I’ve come to not enjoy them as much. It’s almost as if the traditional cultural norms of multiple societies like the artistic values of Paris, in a way, have become the Parisian’s tomatoes. Being able to go to Paris and see how much it has changed now from its original Modernistic era puts the cherry on top of everything because I will be able to visualize firsthand the transformation of beautiful society.

Maybe we should all start looking at ourselves and our community more to see how we’ve changed. Is it a positive or negative change? If it’s negative what can we do to change it? There’s always a way and we aren’t perfect. So what can we do to change the ways in which we live to have a more positive view.