Student reflects on one-of-a-kind experience

September 9, 2015 · 0 Comments

By Mark Pavilons
Collaborating with teens and finding the importance of remembrance were the lessons learned by one King student during a recent European excursion.
Palma Gurdulcic connected with her past, during a two-week educational program in England, France and Belgium to study Canada’s First World War contributions. She joined a team of other teenagers, who were winners of the prestigious Beaverbrook Vimy Prize.
“Overall, I found this experience to be one of a kind. The whole group was filled with like-minded individuals who are driven, who are excited about learning and are happy with where they are going in life,” she said. “This trip was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate with other teens in finding the importance of remembrance. Not many people have had the chance to experience the world wars in such an immersive manner.”
The group visited the renowned Vimy Ridge memorial, which was one of the most interesting and emotional places to visit.
Palma said there are 11,285 Canadian trees and shrubs planted on the site, symbolic of each missing Canadian soldier whose name is engraved in the monument.
“That visual alone leaves one in awe at the dedication involved in war. Each of those trees represents someone with a name, someone who has shared laughs, cries, hugs, someone who was no different then you and I, yet the memory of their individual being fades away against the loud hum of loss.
“There sits the memorial, stuck somewhere between grievance and peace itself. Stuck between being grandiose in size and scenery, yet humble in colour. This was a memorial that even Hitler himself was drawn to protect because of the sense of peace it exuded. We visited it twice, once during the day and once during the night. Both visits did not fail to leave me in utter awe.”
For Palma and others, the visit offered a sense of reality – tangible historic evidence.
For Palma, the Beaverbrook Vimy Prize was an opportunity to connect in a deeply personal way with her family history.
Her great-great-grandfather was mustard gassed during the Great War and she wanted to try to get a sense of his times, his terrors, his triumphs, by walking the same ground he did.
She admitted that her knowledge of the wars until this point was taken from texts and consisted of facts, numbers and the definite. It was dehumanized and lacked colour and feeling.
“When I went on this trip everything became very real – the numbers of lost and missing were now not numbers but rows and rows of gravestones marked with a simple description of someone only human. We stood at the bottom of the hill in Omaha Beach and finally understood the weight of success in conquering such a large, steep landscape. We walked through underground tunnels and realized the reality of confinement. This whole trip was about realization from small things to large. We came as close as most ever could to putting ourselves in the shoes of our World War I and II soldiers. It played a huge role in lifting the curtain of war to show us it all without the sparkling glasses of propaganda. We learned about emotion.”
The poignancy was not lost of the teens. Palma said now, more than ever, she knows how important it is to remember and reflect.
“As a human being, it is too easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life. It’s easy to get upset over broken vases or delayed dinner plans – we have the privilege to do so. Behind each sacrifice made by man there are thousands of freedoms granted like freedom of thought, conscience and religion or even the freedom of speech. So, how selfish we would be to gather up all our winnings and turn our gaze away, from the countless men and women who gave their entire being for the safety and well being of our country?
“It only takes a few minutes of your time to reflect and remember as a thank you and nod to their sacrifice of life.”
And she has some advice for the rest of us.
Paying tribute to or honouring those who have served could be as easy as taking a moment a year to reflect on their sacrifice, and motivating others to do so as well. The next step could be educating yourself, learn about the world wars and why they were important or take the time to even learn about a single soldier’s story.
“Anything you can do to carry the weight of remembrance is significant,” she said. “The goal is to make sure these wars are not forgotten because we always have something to learn.”