By Opal Miller

Over the past few days we’ve visited had cultural experiences around Athens such as a walking tour and visits to the Archaeology Museum and the Acropolis, as well as a Greek cooking class. Overall, between the different experiences there was an idea that many Ancient Greek cultures had reached an advanced level that they were able to focus on things such as theater, art, and medicine. This could be seen from the level of detail in designing the Parthenon and the Acropolis, as well as the evolution of art designs from the earliest civilizations to the well known Greek classical period. Many of the vases and inscriptions told stories or accounts of events such as people being healed, and the amount of knowledge from that era indicates that they wrote down much of what happened, meaning they were self-aware to a point where they wanted future generations to learn from the past.

When considering our reality now, we too have reached a point where we record as much knowledge as possible and are focused on improvements in medicine and infrastructure and sustainability. However, I think it is admirable that the Athenians were also able to do this in their society while still emphasizing art and creative architecture. As an engineer, I think a lot of the time there is more emphasis on efficiency and technological advancements at the expense of art and cultural expression, and seeing a lot of the landmarks on the trip so far has inspired me to be more mindful of art and creativity in my future.