Since I've found that my food journal was getting pretty boring, I've decided to take my English 420 project in a new direction. I found inspiration for my new project during our last class, when we discovered that we had been calling one of our classmates by the wrong name for weeks! He explained that his Facebook name was not actually his real name, and told us his real name. This revelation sparked a conversation about names - whether we really "look" like our names, why, and how our feelings towards our own names have changed over the years. Juliana, for instance, shared that as a child, she hated her full name, and always went by Julie, but now that she's older, she doesn't hate her full name anymore, and now goes by Juliana. Thylias mentioned that "names" would make a good project.
I have been interested in names for some time, and had actually thought about doing a genealogy project before Thylias said that. I think family trees are so interesting and can reveal so much about a person and their background; I would love to know more about mine. Furthermore, on the topic of "names," I am named after a great-great aunt (or some similar relation), and I don't know anything about her! I would love to know more about who she was and her life because, even though she had died before I was even born, I feel a strange connection to her, since I bear her name.
Another reason that I think a genealogy project is important and relevant to my life is that where a person comes from is very important, and has a huge impact on who they are and who they become. I feel that it is a shame that I know so little about my ancestors and my family tree. However, as Thylias mentioned in class, we all come from stardust, so our ancestors can be traced back to even non-earthly beings. I think it's important to make this realization and this distinction because feeling as though you are descended from stardust makes you remember that you are a part of the entire universe - a part of something much, much bigger than yourself. Knowing this makes life more meaningful and complete.
That is why this genealogy project is so important to me, and so pertinent to my life.
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