Two summers ago, I experienced an epiphany in the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. While I am certainly not the first to have had a revelatory experience there, mine was not of the religious kind. Rather, mine was the illuminating realization that my path leads where my dual and symbiotic passions for history and art have been inexorably guiding me my entire young life.
I have long been fascinated by the past and drawn to museums and other repositories of the past. The first time I breathed the chill conditioned air of the American Museum of Natural History, my father had to lift me on his shoulders to give me an unobstructed view of the fossil remains of a triceratops. On my youthful insistence, we returned to that dinosaur exhibit many, many more times. I was hooked; and, as a social being, I wanted to share my obsession with others. So, for my kindergarten career play, I donned a plastic pith helmet and khaki attire, extolled the virtues of paleontology to my audience and told them with conviction (and a touch of stage fright) of my plan to be a paleontologist one day. …show more content…
I quickly became enthralled. For Halloween, I wore a tall modius headdress and makeshift robes and trick-or-treated as an Egyptian deity. When my friends and family refused to worship me, I took it in stride and decided that I would step down to the earthly plane and become an Egyptologist. To share my enthusiasm for ancient Egyptian culture, I invented a recess role-playing game and persuaded my friends to play for weeks, until wall-ball stole our
I have long been fascinated by the past and drawn to museums and other repositories of the past. The first time I breathed the chill conditioned air of the American Museum of Natural History, my father had to lift me on his shoulders to give me an unobstructed view of the fossil remains of a triceratops. On my youthful insistence, we returned to that dinosaur exhibit many, many more times. I was hooked; and, as a social being, I wanted to share my obsession with others. So, for my kindergarten career play, I donned a plastic pith helmet and khaki attire, extolled the virtues of paleontology to my audience and told them with conviction (and a touch of stage fright) of my plan to be a paleontologist one day. …show more content…
I quickly became enthralled. For Halloween, I wore a tall modius headdress and makeshift robes and trick-or-treated as an Egyptian deity. When my friends and family refused to worship me, I took it in stride and decided that I would step down to the earthly plane and become an Egyptologist. To share my enthusiasm for ancient Egyptian culture, I invented a recess role-playing game and persuaded my friends to play for weeks, until wall-ball stole our