You Don't Have to be Perfect to be Something Beautiful

My name is Aurea Colston and I am a senior at Sac High. I am currently in AP Calculus and AP Government/Economics. Math and Science have been my favorite subjects since I was in grade school. However, another huge part of my life is art and music, which have always been there for me. Whenever I feel down or bored, I can always find comfort and happiness by just creating designs with a piece of paper and color pencils, or even by learning a new song on the piano. (The picture to the left is a flower I drew with color pencil.) Another thing I love to do in my free time is read or write short stories.

History has never been my best subject. I barely passed with a C in most of my history classes. I always felt  that I didn’t like the subject only because I was wasn’t very good at it. However, when my junior year came, I received a very supportive and helpful history teacher. She pushed me because she knew I could do better than what I was presenting her. At the end of my junior year, my final grade in my US History class was an A. In fact, I received an A in every class that year. This showed me that I could work so much harder and do so much better than I thought I could. I feel confident that I can achieve any goal I set for myself now. This is one big reason why I decided to set this goal of receiving this Context Travel scholarship to Rome.I'm not perfect, but I do believe that by being myself and working hard can help me achieve this goal.

When creating my History of Rome Timeline, I came across so many things that interested me; it was hard to pick just one. Although, the history of Christianity interested me the most while doing my research. In 64 AD, a huge fire broke out, destroying most of the city. Of course, the Christians were blamed for it. However, many people believe that this was in fact an action of emperor Nero, who persecuted the Christians the worst. It was interesting to see the irony in how bad Christians were targeted and persecuted for their faith, then later on, see Christianity grow to be the sole religion of Rome.

Another thing I find remarkable is that even though this city was once destroyed in this tragic fire, it is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world. For example, the Colosseum is half destroyed, but my grandmother tells me that it was such an amazing sight for her. “It’s just beautiful at night,” she says.(The picture above is a picture my grandmother, Margaret, took of the Colosseum in 2002.) This just shows me that something doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

~Aurea Colston