guest post

i've been busy with exams... studying at panera, iHop (which contrary to what the name suggests, isn't owned by Apple), my room, the basement, johnny's, and everywhere in between.

but because i've been so busy, i've gained my roommates permission to post something that she wrote. this is a paper she wrote for her history final and got to be a little creative with it. i must say, i am pretty proud of my roomie. quality entertainment. the "jolly music" is my favorite part.
enjoy.

As much as I wanted the classroom clock to be visible during class, when the day came, the change was absolutely unbearable. My peers and I could not peel our eyes off the simple machine that dictates our everyday lives. Words about the Protestant Reformation and the colonization of America seemed meaningless because I was focused on the here and now. The only thing that registered within my mind was the gradual clockwise movement of the minute hand—time seemed oddly slower than usual. When only ten minutes had passed in the last half an hour, I discredited the clock’s ability to tell time correctly and went back to scribbling down my notes.

To my surprise, my next glance at the clock proved to be the reality of every student’s nightmare—the clock was indeed moving backwards! It began by taking a few steps back; a minute here and there, but the hand soon gained speed and at a constant pace began to rewind time. The clock must have had a boost of adrenaline because the hand was moving backward so fast that I could not longer see the hand circling the blurry numbers that were the only evidence I still had that the circle attached to the cinder-block wall was indeed still a clock. Wow! I need to start getting more sleep. I must be hallucinating from sleep deprivation—why else would the classroom have begun to spin around my stationary chair?

Much like the spinning teacups in Disney World, I spun quite some time to jolly music that was supposed to take my mind off the current state of my stomach. Luckily, the spinning came to a gradual stop before my breakfast had covered my history notes spread across my desk. Once I regained my sense of balance, I assessed the damage. My history notes were everywhere—floating through the air, crumpled on the floor, sprawled across my lap. It was going to take such a long time to collect the pages and pages of notes I had taken during class, and putting them in order was going to be a difficult task.

When I noticed my surroundings, I realized my notes were the least of my problems. Time had literally reversed. In front of what should have been the projector screen was an elaborate pulpit and a table with several candles lit. The light in the room flickered as if the electricity connection was failing, but either the sconces were actual candles or designed to look exactly like them. By the burn on my finger, I came to the conclusion that they were indeed real candles. I took a candle off the wall to light the corridor I planned to venture into, and as the shadows danced across the cold marble walls, I followed the slight noises coming from the opposite side of what looked like an ancient castle.

A murmur of a whisper drew me into a large sitting room with the rows and rows of shelves filled with leather-bound books. My attempt to walk across the room was brought to an abrupt stop when a young lady quickly stood up from her seat facing the roaring fire. Not only did the mere presence of another individual frighten me, but I jumped even higher when I looked more closely at the girl—it was like looking into a crystal-clear mirror. The shock caused our eyes to expand to the same maximum diameter, and our mouths seemed to drop at the exact same time. How could we look so similar while she was clearly from a different time period than I?

From the terrified look I wore on my face, she could tell that I was not from a neighboring kingdom. I felt underdressed in my jeans and sweatshirt so I continued to try to reach the exit, but the girl called out and asked me to wait. I slowed my pace down and cautiously turned to her. The young lady introduced herself as Adalheidis Jetter.

The feeling of shock resurfaced as I realized there must be a reason that we look so similar—somehow we were related; having the same last name was not just a coincidence. After I regained my ability to speak, I introduced myself and asked where I was. I was in one of the many German states during the seventeenth century. My history class had transformed into actual history.

Trying to explain my life to Adalheidis proved to be almost impossible. I did not even know where to start, but I began with trying to describe the United States. Of course, she did not know that there was a new world yet to be discovered and colonized. I then thought we had found some common ground with the topic of education, but when Adalheidis expressed her interest in learning, it mostly consisted of traditional tasks an upper middle class female would learn in the 1600s. After she showed me her needlepoint and drawings, I told her about the equal opportunities that females now have in education. The idea of colleges and universities was foreign yet exciting, and she begged me to tell her more about my pursuit of higher education.

Adalheidis lit up as she drank in information about the future. I described my major, my friends and things we do for fun, and my family as she listened intently. The difference in time was especially apparent in her reaction when I mentioned what college I was attending. She immediately recognized the connection between Calvin College and the reformer, John Calvin. She herself had heard many of the reformed ideas that were reshaping the concept of religion and the church for the past century. As excited she was about the changes, she also feared that the Catholic Church would use their power to eliminate the Protestant ideas that were taking hold in many communities. We continued discussing the spread of the Protestant Reformation, and I assured her that many of her descendants will be following the same teachings hundreds of years later.

Out of habit, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket to check the time, which was irrelevant in my situation but led to a string of questions from Adalheidis. Amazed by the everyday modern conveniences, she wanted to know every detail about the so-called “technology.” I found myself unable to answer many of her questions because in today’s society, technology is taken for granted. I soon realized that I could not describe the Internet without explaining the computer, cell phones without clarifying the concept of a landline, lights without the explanation of electricity, and cars without the understanding of engines and gasoline.

Although our societies were completely different, Adalheidis was fascinated with technology, and she wished she could experience the society I was describing. I must have talked too highly of technology because Adalheidis was led to believe that all technological advancements had positive effects on society. I knew I could not mislead her, and I began to tell her of the unfortunate events that were results of technology. I explained to her that although technology has saved lives and made them quite easier, it has also caused terror and chaos within society. Wars are fought with machines that have been perfected to kill. Privacy is a rarity, and much of the uniqueness that was once present in every culture has been lost in the complex process of globalization.

Even though Adalheidis and I saw each other’s lives as living in completely different worlds, we bonded over the commonality found within the shared desire to improve our respective worlds. Adalheidis was already brainstorming ideas to make advancements that would eventually transform her society into my society. Right as she picked up my cell phone to examine it closer, the digital clock on the screen began blinking rapidly, and I knew that my time with Adalheidis was up.