The Pensieve

I won’t be the first to admit that I had my fair share of doubts about whether HumanCore would be an enjoyable experience or not. After hearing countless warnings about the overbearing amount of writing and readings required for the course, it was with a reluctance that I enrolled in fall quarter. While the theme Empire and Its Ruins didn’t catch my immediate attention as opposed to the fascinating idea of spending a year discussing Wars, it soon began to be a topic I thoroughly enjoyed learning about.

What interested me was the expanse of the course and the direction that it was taken in. It didn’t solely discuss the foundations of empires and the way that they operated, but it importantly extensively discussed the many different minority groups that had been affected by such powers. We discussed injustices in Asia, India, South America and the Middle East, to name a few. We discussed historiography and the ways in which the perspective and background of writers shape the stories that they tell. We discussed so many writers whose perspectives reflect the stories of the many groups and individuals who have been forgotten. We importantly ended the year discussing racecraft and gender frontiers, topics, all ancient, that are still very relevant and applicable in our current society; it has taught me to see how race and gender operate in our modern world. What HumanCore has taught me to do is to use these frameworks to see the world with a more open conscience and a more open mind, because the stories that I see and hear everyday are not the only ones that exist and it is my duty to educate myself about the wide plain of humanity.

HumanCore has also helped me to drastically expand my mind. Through this course, I was able to work with various fields such as philosophy, literature and history. The versatility of the writing assignments were also very helpful as they taught me how to construct a paper for various purposes and goals; nothing was the same. Through this course I importantly discovered the joy I get from writing and from putting my thoughts onto paper, even if they aren’t fully developed or sound. It has given a platform through which I was allowed to express my thoughts and beliefs and to use my voice to comment about the various social injustices we sadly still see. I am also thankful as it allowed me to closely work with film, something that I am very, very passionate about but haven’t been given the opportunity to learn about in a professional setting before. It has expanded my horizons and I want to keep on writing, thinking, and growing.

HumanCore has been more than just about empires, it has been about what it means to be human. It has been about our moral limitations, how we react in the face of injustices, how we react in the face of diversity and opposing viewpoints, and our fragile humanity. Life is fleeting. Humans come and go and so do the grandiose creations that they make. What remains are the stories of those who had lived through such ordeals. Those are what survive and thrive and must not be forgotten. It is this that I will keep in mind as I carry on my newfound consciousness in my remainder years at UCI and the many years to follow.