The World to Rome

       I know it might seem a little worn out and repetitive to all Sac High students, but I am VERY passionate about lifelong learning. I believe becoming a well rounded person is the epitome of a happy, fulfilling way of life. Unfortunately, my understandings of the world and society have been limited to the confines of the U.S, and being such a young country has left much to be desired when considering the depth of our history and culture. Most of American values and principles upon which life if based is borrowed from older, more profound cultures, such as the Greeks, Jews, and of course, Romans. My textbook understandings of these countries and people oceans away from me have left my with an obscure and unacquainted perspective. But to actually immerse myself and allow my intellectual horizon to broaden, to be in the presence of historical greatness and to stand in the shadows of the pantheon and behold the Sistine Chapel, would be the experience of a lifetime. I actually get excited and my heart beats a little faster when I imagine being able to see for myself the beginnings of civilization itself, to have in front of me works of art I have only seen on the internet or in books.
       Traveling for me has always been determined by where my basketball team is playing or where my grandparents live. But to travel for education and to experience the life of another culture would allow me to begin to understand the world around me and how similar yet differnet everyone really may be. I believe you can learn a lot about a culture through art, and Rome is undescribably affluent in all aspects of artistic beauty from architecture to Michaelangelo's depictions of God's Creation of Humankind and the Fall of Man on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I feel so privledged to be given the opportunity to compete for this opportunity. This possibility is almost too good to be true sometimes.. -Simone Sheppard