When we began our study of myths, we learned the purpose that myths fulfill and why they are so important to cultures around the globe. Myths exist to answer fundamental questions about the universe. In this, I was able to understand that myths existed as a source of comfort for people. The unknown can feel scary and overwhelming, and in ancient times where science was not advanced enough to explain many of the experiences which affect our daily life, a story of explanation could have been comforting.
When it was time for me to create my own myth, it was my turn to explain a phenomenon. This task immediately overwhelmed me. It felt so incredibly broad, and I was intimidated by the burden of explaining the origins of something that I absolutely had nothing to do with and for which I was not present. This gave me some insight on how people must have felt in creating these myths; they must have been so intensely looking for answers in order to be inspired enough to come up with these stories. While the burden of explaining natural phenomena feels impossible to me because I live in a world where science has already explained a whole lot of our experiences, early people who did not have as much information or education were inspired by their intense curiosity to piece together reality in a way that makes sense for them.
This was a joyful reminder for me about how naturally inquisitive and exploratory humans are. If people do not have access to an answer to a question they have, they tend to go out of their way to fill in these knowledge gaps with myth, art, and research. This gives my role as a teacher a joyful weight to it. My classroom will be buzzing with curious minds ready to try their best in piecing the world together in a way that makes sense. I am excited to aid in their journeys of natural curiosity and I hope that the knowledge they gain in my classroom will help them make sense of and prepare for the big world ahead of them.
