Imagine that you have the opportunity to travel back through time. At what point in history would you like to stop and why?
Truly, I would not like to stop at one point. I would like to visit places and see important events, but I would also like to see progression: technological, ideological, and societal. The world changed a lot through the end of the 20th century, and I would to observe that evolution in other times, places, and cultures. To be able to see what decisions led to the demise or success of various cultures and civilizations, and to learn from their mistakes, is the underlying purpose of any study of history. Certainly, if I should be given the chance to observe in person events that we have only read about in books, I would like to see a progression of events rather than only a historically important occurrence, to fulfill this purpose.
Returning back to the prompt, though, which specifies a certain point in time, I would stop at the time of Florence Nightingale's sanitation reform efforts, which were novel and extremely beneficial for the time. Today, lifestyle problems count for 70% of this nation's healthcare spending, and encouraging public health reform both in laws and in society is absolutely. Nightingale achieved this end with sanitation, which was a grave public health issue at the time; moreover, she also worked internationally, in India as well as Crimea, to improve such conditions. As for me, I am not so much interested in what she did as much as how she did it. Influencing public policy was as much a task today as it was in her time. The ultimate art is that of convincing people, both to adopt these policies in their home lives and to implement them in public. I would like to observe how she did that, for the purpose of doing that today. Thus, I would like to encourage America's public to lead a healthy lifestyle today using what I learn from efforts to do the same in the past.
