Brittany Wissen -- Visit to Gettysburg

The summer I graduated from high school, I took a road trip with my friend and her parents up to Gettysburg for a weekend. At the time, it seemed only a battlefield that was fun to look at. Crawling all over the Devil’s Hills was the highlight of my time there. However, after talking about Gettysburg as a sacred place in class, my mind was changed. The three axioms that we listed in class (tread on without entering, ordinary place made sacred by ritual, and chooses not chosen) now make sense. Like me, a person can go to Gettysburg without realizing its importance beyond that of the Battle of Gettysburg—however, it is much more than that. It is made sacred because of all the people who go there to witness its majesty. Lastly, mankind did not choose to wage battle there; it happened by accident that the two armies met there. Now that I know this, I would like to return to the city with this in mind and see how I feel the second time around.