Whoever said everything is bigger in Texas might second guess themselves when they see the Colosseum in Rome. Every piece of ancient architecture, especially the Colosseum, give the city an air of grandeur and majesty. Walking around Rome makes you realize how much history has come before us and how much the world has to offer.
The Colosseum was a place of entertainment for the city. Citizens would gather to watch gladiator battles, animal hunts, and reenactments of well-known battles and plays. The iconic amphitheater could even host mock naval battles by filling the circular stage area with water. I was amazed that after all of these centuries, I could still walk inside it with my friends and see what I had been seeing in textbooks right before me.
When a society is thriving, its members can worry less about fulfilling their basic needs like food and shelter and focus more on pursuits like entertainment, philosophy, and art. Places of entertainment, like the Colosseum, can tell us a lot about what the society values and strives to be. For example, the reign of the most recognizable emperor of the Roman Empire, Julius Cesar, was a time of great military strength, strategy, and conquering other lands. Roman society valued what people like Cesar and the gladiators of the Colosseum represented: bravery, strength, and determination. The next emperor, Augustus, ushered in a new era for Rome called “Pax Romana”. This was an era for peace and prosperity, a time where society valued advancements in art and science, and nationalism. These two rulers, despite their reigns being very different, both inspired their people’s values and ways of life.
With that being said, what do you value? How do the people you surround yourself with at Texas A&M, the companies you buy from, and the media you consume influence your ways of living? When I asked myself these questions, I expected my answers to be very different than those of people in Greece or Italy. After all, we are oceans apart and our societies couldn’t seem any more different. When I first arrived to our first stop on our study abroad trip, I thought that I would be an outsider and wouldn’t be able to relate to the local people I encountered. However, as I spent more and more time looking at the locals around me, I found that we are all more alike than we realize.
Throughout my trip, everyone I met showed me so much kindness! From people on the street helping us during class scavenger hunts to business owners telling us the stories of their lives and their products, I realized that our society values the same things that they do. We value kindness, being helpful, and having fun. We also value hard work, honesty, and perseverance. By holding these values that we all share at the forefront of our interactions, we can create a stronger world.
