Final Reflection

Reshooting Route 66 was about reflecting on the past and observing how we have changed and affected what America used to be like. The goal was to retake pictures of Route 66 in the same location that the pictures of the past were taken in. This would allow me to truly see how times have changed and more importantly how the values of Americans have changed. The first part of the experience involved researching and gathering a copious amount of pictures of the past. I ended up gathering about 75 pictures of Route 66, but not all of them were usable because only a few had a location that I could track down. This gave me a lot of information about the history of Route 66 and what it used to look like. I had more information about what it looked like in its prime than how it looks currently, which really gave me perspective while driving down it. After gathering the pictures and planning the trip itself, the main part of the experience was actually using all of the information gathering and planning I had done and driving down the road itself. Other than one day of bad weather, it went seamlessly. We were able to get almost all of my pictures recreated while also exploring a part of America we had never been to. The only pictures we failed to recreate were in Oklahoma because of the bad weather.

The most important thing I learned was that there’s no such thing as being over prepared. Before the trip I spent a lot of work doing so many preparations. At the time even I thought it was ridiculous and I didn’t need that much, but I continued to do it and more because I was excited and it was fun getting ready for the trip. During it, it became apparent that I did the minimum. We were exactly the right amount of prepared even though beforehand I thought we would be way overprepared. This taught me how much work goes into a seamless trip of any nature. We were very lucky we had put that much work in before the trip started, because if we hadn’t it wouldn’t have worked out so smoothly. This correlated with one of my personal goals, which was to develop practical travel skills that promote safe, stimulating, and productive travel throughout your life. I learned that it’s better to go way overboard with preparations beforehand than to scramble for help during a trip. It also correlated with my experience goal to develop better organization and planning skills through creating a detailed itinerary. I also was able to fulfill my personal goal of “seek new ways to engage an existing competency/medium. Become more familiar and knowledgeable about the art of photography and videography.” Throughout the trip I focused on trying different settings and angles with my pictures and I definitely learned more about how aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and more affects each other and how the picture turns out. I also made sure to take lots of videos and practice editing them in order to become better at that. This trip was very successful in helping me and everyone else involved grow as a person. We were able to truly test out being independent for the first time, and now we can actually trust ourselves and our skills at being adults (except for starting a campfire, we still haven’t succeeded at that).

This experience made me want to travel and see more of America. The national parks we visited looked like they were part of another planet, I was truly amazed at how impressive and crazy they were. It also brought out my passion of geology again, which I had as a little kid but has faded over time. Seeing how all of these amazing sights on the Colorado plateau had formed inspired me to purchase some books to learn more. I also want to take geology classes if I can fit it in my schedule. I had always thought the formation of the Earth and rocks was crazy, but now it has been reawakened in me after this trip. It also has impacted me to want to see more of the world. I believe that everyone must visit at least one national park in their life. National parks are the best thing that America has ever done because it just inspires people to care about the earth because it is remarkable how beautiful areas like Zion or Bryce Canyon were able to form.

This experience will definitely make me think more about the past and how it affects the future. However, that past could be just a couple of generations ago where our ancestors shaped the future or just a couple of millions of years ago where tectonic plates and happenstance shaped the future. I will definitely look more into the history for every place I travel to in order to become more knowledgeable and more respectful.