I have ambivalent feelings. I'm supposed to have had the intelligence to be an academic. I didn't enjoy formal study and overall, didn't excel in school.
I tried to accomplish some pretty lofty things, both as a member of organized labor and as an individual. In our union we did pretty well, but it all went to $hit when unscrupulous investors filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy, and put us all out on the street with nothing. A great success, ended in failure.
I drove race cars for several years, during racing's "most lethal era", I survived and made a living off the winnings. Damned few have ever done that. Never got to compete in the Indianapolis 500.
I ran my own businesses, and while I didn't get rich, I did better than just creating a job for myself. Even sold one for good money! Sold it to the employees!
I raised 4 pretty attractive, intelligent, and successful girls. Their mother moved out when they were entering their teen years. The divorce was a failure and the low point in my life.
The kid's decision to stay with me was a good feeling and a high. I've had some adventures, and wonderful experiences, that few people will ever have. I've certainly had some lows, that were really devastating, and were difficult to recover from.
Some of my coworkers are still homeless, and a few even killed themselves. I wasn't able to help them. Feel bad about that.
I guess overall I did OK, but there were certainly some painful and difficult things to live through. My success is more on the subjective level, than one of recognized accomplishments. I'm getting too old and stove up to do much more of any value.
I wish I'd been able to do more. We still have war, vast inequality in pay, poverty, kids are not getting good educations, health care is poor, and too expensive. Employers are exploiting labor, and retirement is not possible for more than half of our workers.
Crazy politicians catering to their billionaire campaign financiers, are trampling on our individual freedoms. Pollution is more a specter than ever. I tried to "joust at these windmills" most of my life.
Guess I didn't do a very good job.
OK, here's what I feel. I feel sort of like my life so far is kind of like a cross between Albert Einstein and Thomas Jefferson. Or actually, maybe that's not exactly right.
Anyway, I sure do feel at least like a cross between Ben Carson and Donald Trump. What I mean is: I may not be the absolutely smartest bulb in the chandelier. And I may not exactly be able to tell you exactly what the relationship between mass and energy and the speed of light is, or explain why all men are created equal.
HOWEVER, I can explain in a few short words why the theory of Evolution is all wrong and the universe actually began in a magic garden near the Euphrates River about six thousand years ago. And the first humans were Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and Steve, who only got that way because they were in prison for awhile. And how Women and Mexicans and Muslims and Chinese and Homos are all LOSERS who cannot make DEALS because they do not THINK BIG!
And how the Bible is my favorite book even if I can't exactly tell you what's in it, and how America needs more gambling casinos and bimbo contests to make it GREAT again! That much I definitely feel for sure! Which is why nobody would ever guess that I'm stupid.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.