Blog of a Young Girl

Yesterday I went to Amsterdam for the main purpose of visiting one of the most influential houses in the history of Literature, Tolerance, and Judaism – the Anne Frank House...

I was fortunate enough to get in for free because my museum n8 ticket got me admission for one time after the actual event. Although I bought a museumkaart, the Anne Frank House is a privately owned museum, and is therefore not covered under it. But I digress.

The House was amazing, and beautiful, and so many words I can’t describe. The minute you walk up the stairs, there are tears in your eyes. But unlike most times, when studying things of immense sadness like the Holocaust, the tears were in awe of this life you knew you were about to experience.

Every room in the house gave me new inspiration. But the greatest moment was walking down the stairs at the end of the exhibition and seeing the diary...

It was at that moment that the tears began to flow freely. Seeing it there as this thing that I’ve read and only imagined before was incredible. I mean this book has been translated into over 10 different languages and read in almost every high school across the US. I bought a copy, since I never actually owned one, plus they put a sticker in it saying it was from the house. And they even had every translation available at the gift shop...

The craziest thing is that as I type this, I realize that, in writing this blog, I'm keeping my own diary. It's true I'm not going through anything as tramatic as Nazi occupation and oppression, but I am finding a way to keep a record of my thoughts, feelings, and ideas, in the hopes that people around the world will read them. Anyone with a blog, journal, newsletter, or the means to communicate, has the ability to give the world something amazing.

But I think that’s enough. It’s a little odd to blog about such a personal experience so I’ll leave you with this…pictures of Anne, her family, as well as the James Logan High School production. In high school I was in the play “Diary of Anne Frank” as Anne. It was a completely interracial cast including an Asian father, Mexican-African American mother. My best friend played Margot and her boyfriend played Peter…which made it a little awkward kissing him onstage in front of her...so on a light note...enjoy...

“One single Anne Frank moves us more than the countless others who suffered just as she did but whose faces have remained in the shadows. Perhaps it is better that way; if we were capable of taking in all the suffering of all those people, we would not be able to live.” – Primo Levi

Word of the Day: Huis - House