The Museum of Natural History

Science has always been my weak point. History? Easy. You just have to memorize events. Writing? No problem. It just comes naturally to me. Math? There's not an easier subject. It's all just logic puzzles. But science? I passed through multiple AP courses and math class for students two years above me all throughout high school, but often found myself struggling to maintain even a C- in on-level science courses.

Despite that, as a much younger child, I really loved the sciences. I was never a big TV watcher, but when I did watch TV, I tended to prefer documentaries. From shows about interplanetary travel to shows about the migration habits of the monarch butterfly, I was always just fascinated to learn, even if I wasn't going to retain most of the information. It's funny how I struggled so much to apply sciences in a classroom environment.

But all that out of the way, when I saw that we were not going to visit the Museum of Natural History in class, I decided that I wanted to visit it. I went with some of my classmates, using the museum for the stream "Your own Museum".

 I believe it was Sharif who said we needed to see the video about the universe. This was located in a large, spherical chamber called the "Hayden Big Bang Theater", which greatly resembled the Death Star from the Star Wars films. Fittingly enough, the video was narrated by Liam Neeson, who I knew from Star Wars.

The film itself was a pretty simple introduction. It seemed like it was aimed at a younger audience than us, but that was okay. I still enjoyed it, and it warmed my heart to see so many young children there, developing an interest in the sciences at such a young age as I did myself.

Let's just hope they are better at actual science classes than I was...

 After that show, our smaller group went off to the Biodiversity and Environment hall, which featured some scale-sized setups of different kinds of environments. I personally enjoyed the forest ones, for the way they made me feel at home. The hall also had a variety of animals on display. Many sea creatures were mounted on the wall or hung from the ceiling. From what I can tell, the ones on the wall were real, preserved for an eternity. I believe the creatures on the ceiling were just models. Prior to entering the room, some of my classmates discussed finding the whale model, a life-sized replica of a blue whale, but unfortunately, the room it was in was ribboned off.

 I found myself drawn the the beauty of the tigers on display. The striped fur pattern is beyond gorgeous, downright regal. Something about their faces looks intelligent to me. I don't believe a tiger is cunning or evil. They look like thoughtful creatures. I would love to have some way to get up close to a tiger in its natural habitat, and observe its movements. Without being eaten, of course.

 I really do have a strong love of animals and nature. I try to get meat and dairy from the less commercial farms, if possible. I also avoid killing insects in my house, and opt to gently scoop them into a cup and let them outside if I can. While it isn't the same as seeing all these creatures alive and well, I can only hope this exhibit stimulates the minds of children. My sister is really into biology, and I think I would like to take her here if I ever get the opportunity.

 The last place I went to was the Human Origin hall, I believe. I'm a very strong supporter of the theory of evolution, and I find it really sad that most people who opt to not believe in it don't have any scientific reasoning to disagree. In my high school biology class, evolution was only spoken about on one day, and the teacher was being very careful. I don't want to sound preachy, but I just cannot stand the thought of people choosing to believe in a passage from an old book when there is overwhelming scientific evidence saying otherwise. Many religious people accept that the Bible and other holy books were wrong to claim the Earth is the center of the universe, so why can they not accept the origin story as inaccurate, too?

But enough rambling. Seeing the models of early primates slowly take on the modern human shape was humbling, to say the least. It's just so crazy to believe that one of these things was related to me, that at some point in time, a being existed like this, and that being was my ancestor. I wonder, would these ancestors, if they could understand my life, be proud of it? Would they be happy with my choices? I realize this far back was probably too primitive for them to comprehend something like this, but I can still wonder. 

In the end, it just demonstrates here how far humanity has come as a species. Not just in physical appearance, but as a culture. From hunters and gatherers to artists and writers. Humanity is so far away now from when it began, and that's beautiful in its own way.