History is not a school subject that I enjoy, mostly because we cover things related to our own history and always talk about the wars and politics. However, I love learning about events that aren't as commonly talked about and certainly not taught in history lessons. I dislike memorizing them and I find the mundane parts of history fascinating.
When my history teacher first offered to write my name in the team, I was hesitant. I didn't know a lot of facts and dates, so I doubted if I could do well. When she informed me it would be more like understanding the text and would not require previous knowledge, I decided to give it a try. Solving the example questions was easy enough although I was worried that the texts would be boring to read. When I joined the first exam, I was thrilled to find out that it was so much more interesting than I thought. There was a text about Japan, Korea and China's cultural development through each other and I genuinely loved reading that text. The other texts weren't as memorable to me, but I enjoyed all of them. I just remember the first one in particular because I didn't expect the competition to include Asian history in it.
Finding the answers in the texts was easy in the first round, and I got full scores. I also got to read a lot of interesting stories about all the corners of the world, which deepened my appreciation for history.
For the second round, I was excited to read about new stories. Sure enough, the first story about Cleopatra was amazing. It was always a sore spot for me that we never learned about women in history, so reading about Cleopatra's life and her skills was a great opportunity. I've come to know a lot about Rome and Eygpt during those days from this academic marathon. I also read a text about WW2, and it talked about the strategies of different countries. I knew about the basics and the leaders, but behind the scenes, every country had different tactics to rely on and different types of military power. It was also a nice change of pace that the text was neutral on the topic, and neither defended nor criticized any country. Instead, it ended with saying that it would be better had the war not happened and it didn't actually matter who won because everyone loses in a war, which I agree with.
Going into this, I wasn't expecting to come first place in Europe. I was there to learn, have fun and try something new. Maybe it was because I didn't have such high stakes for myself that I was able to stand calm and answer correctly. In the end, I am honoured and proud to have gotten first place, but just learning about pieces of history that I wasn't previously acquainted with was reward enough.
