Think back to your time in grade school and high school history classes when you were first learning about how our country was started, and how we won our independence from England. School history classes may have taught you the basics about the first settlers in Jamestown, and how the people were tired of paying taxes, but what the history classes were not teaching was the daily life of the people. The people during this time were very content considering they did not have the advancements we have today.
I just recently returned from a week-long vacation to Willamsburg, Virginia, and while there I was sent back in time to an era where people lived a more simple life. I visited the Revolutionary City, Jamestown, and Yorktown each providing a glimpse of what life was like back then. When you see the way the people lived you have to stop and ask yourself how did anyone survive day to day living of life. There was no electricity, which today's society heavily depends on, no indoor plumbing, and the medicine was certainly not what it is today. These people were forced to use what they had available, and what they did not have they did without. The luxuries in today's society are taken for granted if we do not have something we can just hop in the car and go and get it, we do not have to get the horses from the barn and hitch the team up to a wagon.
Today many people are attached to their phones, and I have to admit I am very attached to mine; however, it is hard not to since this is how the world communicates with each other. The internet is a tool which we are all accustomed to using. It keeps us up to date with current events, celebrities lives, or whatever else we need to know in a touch of a button. Today's society lives in the fast lane spoiled with technology that can produce instant responses.
During the Colonial times, things were much slower, for example people would not hear news right away it could be as old as a week or a month before they received it. Instead of sending a text message, calling, or sending an email colonist would have to write letters, or travel to a person's house to have a face to face conversation with them. While in Williamsburg you are able to take a step back in time, and slow down your life, and walk in the footsteps of our ancestors. This definitely allows you to gain a sense of appreciation as to how far our world has progressed from the sights and sounds of the colonists and our forefathers.
Unfortunately it is very hard for our society to live life in the slow lane, but what today's society does not realize is that there are benefits from it. The colonists were always very grateful of every little thing ,they took time to stop and appreciate all there is to life. People of today tend to miss the little moments allowing any inconvenience to annoy us. When will today's society ever stop, and take the time to appreciate life?
The hustling and bustling we all do to get what we need paying no attention to those around us, creating a diminishing appreciation of the luxuries we have available to us today. If we had to go back in time and lie without the luxuries I do not believe many would survive. Society today would not know how to do anything without being able to go to Google the answer, or many people today are unable to have a face to face conversation because it would be too awkward; since today most of life is seen through a screen.
Maybe if we took one day to slow down, and took the initiative to put down the cell phones and the computers, and take the time to write a handwritten letter to someone, or have an actual face to face conversation with someone would not that make for a far happier world, and allow society to appreciate and enjoy life to the fullest. So maybe take one day and walk in the footsteps of our ancestors and appreciate how far we have come.
