In my senior year of high school I was in this course called Search for Conscience. It was based on the Holocaust as well as genocides. Both of my teachers parents were Holocaust surviors, so she had first hand stories to tell. It was really devastating learning everything that actually happened. 

Throughout high school we just learned the basics, the millions Jews were taken, tortured, and killed by the Natzis. They never really went in depth into anything that really happened. Taking that class really opened my eyes to the real world. The point of the class is to change your perspective on people and their differences. It is a class about acceptance.

We got to meet survivors and talk with them and learn their personal experiences. I also got to meet a few KKK members, some drag queens, and a few veterans. We had violence victims, gays, transgender people, people in the army/navy, to even just people who were first year college students. 

One of the KKK members was like 6 foot 2. He was one of the king wizards. The king wizard is like the one that the people take orders from. He has changed his life around and now he is a catholic priest– how crazy is that. 

You really learn a lot about yourself as well as the other people. If you were comfortable enough to share your story, you were aloud to. Anyone could share any story. You really learn that you are not that different from each other. Even your worst story that you can say, someone could possibly relate to you.

It was really an open space to share the worst things either about yourself or things you have been through. 

Hearing the stories of the Holocaust surviors was a really insane experience. It was very emotional for everyone involved. They would tell us about the moment they were taken, when they were ripped apart from their family.  They expressed all of the things that they were put through and it really made me think. 

I never want to make someone feel the way they felt. I was always a very open person but now I am even more accepting of people for EVERYTHING they are no matter who they are, what they are, or whatever happened to them. I also became even more understanding than I used to be.

This class really made me become a better person as well as more aware.

~Zierra M.