I like finding stuff out. Be it about technology, history, or almost anything. There?s always something we see that we don?t know about, or haven?t got a clue where it came from, and it?s fun to find out. I always used to take apart toys, or even pens and torches, to find out how they worked. While this was fun for a while, I wanted to explore deeper, and finding out about where we, as people, came from in terms of our society and way of thinking, is to me much deeper than how many springs a pen has.
There is so much scope and challenge to be had in the past, finding out what happened, and why it happened, or working out where things went wrong. To me, this is like a fairground, where there are many aspects and avenues of thought to explore, and there are always unique and interesting things to consider and do. The ancient world is what I would consider the beginning of western civilisation, the Latin language of the Romans, or the trade and diplomacy of Ancient Egypt. It makes an obvious starting point for exploration in further education, and gives opportunities and challenges in all aspects of learning. ?Ancient Egypt: A Social History? gave a good background to the development of Ancient Egypt socially, and Homers classics, the Iliad and Odyssey are very rewarding reads, and insightful into the virtuous nature presented in ancient times.
I hope that within school, my study of Psychology will give a basis for anthropological thought, and may also help understand some of the medical challenges faced at the time, with possible misconceptions of mental diseases, which while in a modern world may be recognised, could be grossly misconstrued in times of limited knowledge. Mathematics should help give a good grounding for logical thought, especially important when considering aspects of ancient philosophy, which I have briefly covered in my Religious Studies AS level. I believe Chemistry may be useful as it may aid understanding of dating techniques and preservation of finds, and why some finds are in better conditions than others. It also may aid in practical skills when handling historical artefacts. Outside of school, I have studied a small amount of Latin, which I believe may be useful in linguistic aspects a course, and give a good base for study of texts.
Within school I have helped at various open days and other school events. I feel my teamwork and interpersonal skills have been developed by participating in school sports teams, such as athletics and rugby, and participating in house sports events within the school.
For my work experience in year 10, I went to Guernsey to help at the states education department installing school computers. This involved use of logic and organisational skills, and required teamwork to co-ordinate installations. In year 12 I worked at HP as part of the sales team, and this also required organisational skills, as well and time management to make sure I did my tasks quickly enough, as the work was quite demanding. It also gave me the chance to find out more about computers, and how things happened ?behind the scenes?, which was intriguing.
