Introduction
Historically, Dark Ages refer to a medieval period, especially in Western Europe. Social Scientist estimates this period to be between 476- 800. During this time, there was no Roman empire especially in the West or between the periods of 500 to 1000. Furthermore, this era was characterized by warfare and ultimately the disappearance of urban life. The similarity between the historic period and my present challenges is that, when I came to study, I was in the Dark Age since I was intellectually unfilled. The purpose of this paper is to find how similar my dark age is analogous to the historic dark one.
Language Barrier
At a personal level, I admit that I have experienced a dark age in my life. At a personal level, I can say that my dark age is the language and cultural shock I experienced when I came to the United States to study. I find this situation similar to the historic one because the language barrier disabled me to make any intellectual input in my academic contributions. The most difficult part was when I longed to communion with my classmates and college mates. This proved very difficult, as most people could not understand what I was saying. This is because I found it difficult to construct simple English sentences. As an outgoing personality who longed to reach out to other people apart from my natives, I could not do so, such happening escalated into a cultural shock.
Experiencing communication barriers can be one of the most painful experiences for a sociable personality like mine. One of the outcomes of such an experience is that it creates a dark age around a person. This is because, when people are not able to communicate with each other effectively, messages are not delivered effectively which eventually leads to common mistakes and misunderstandings. This has occurred to me at various times especially in class when I am forced to make mistakes because am not able to grasp simple instructions from the lecturer. A case in mind happened when the lecturer told us to write a short play about our communal life. I made mistakes especially grammatical ones. Another point is that I am unable to make effective contributions when the lecturer assigns us group work since such a task calls for communication within the group.
Cultural Shock
Since I did not know so much, I became sad and almost depressed. I became isolated. My interactions became limited, and could only talk to a few native friends. Surely, I became lonely and longed for a solution to my miserable life. I became reactive to unnecessary actions, and sometimes whenever I accidentally made a mistake, I thought it was my own making. One day, Anne, my classmate accidentally stepped on my shoes while passing by, I made a fuss out of it. I did this ignorantly in my language, not knowing that Anne and the rest of the people did not know what I was a fuss about, they all looked at me with puzzlement and wonder
I have not come out of my personal Dark Age and I have made great efforts to break this barrier. I realized that being alone is even a greater deterrent to my development. As such, I have made great strides in making as many friends as possible. Of the many friends, I have made among them is Leonard. Leonard is such a great friend as he listens to me and makes efforts to teach and correct me whenever I make mistakes in my speech and conversations. He does so during our often interactions. He is so compassionate that one day he bought me an English translation dictionary that helps me find the right vocabulary in English.
Dealing with the dark age
Since I started making as many friends as possible get out of my personal, Dark Age to create a renaissance, my mind is opening up and I can make presentations in English, with difficulty, albeit with confidence. I have realized that this is important especially given that I am a student of theater, which requires confidence, and an extrovert. I believe that this is a great step out of my personal Dark Age.
Such a personality is very important in my profession as it enhances the elements of theater, which are performance and the audience. Without confidence, likely, your performance will not come out well and liked by the audience. Since theater is one of the oldest professions in the world, history has it that it stated in Athens way back in the last two millennia. This later spread into Rome and medieval theater that gave rise to a contemporary one. Luther Theater of the oppressed is one of the contemporary theaters, which involves reactionary approaches especially used to bring radical changes in social, political-cultural, and education sectors of human worldviews.
Conclusion
I can relate my life to the history of drama appreciation. Just like Greek and Roman theaters, which through social and political changes developed into medieval levels. My interests have developed slowly but steadily whereby most of my classmates have started appreciating skills both in spoken language and inactions. At his point, I can state that my linguistic skills are slowly evolving from the medieval level or dark ages towards the contemporary one. With zeal and determination, I do not doubt that, by the time I reach my final year, my professional skills will be so intelligent that I will be able to bring radical changes especially in cultural sectors, which am so concerned about. Just like the theater of the oppressed, I will be able to bring transformative changes that will make people around the world realize that all cultures are equal. Such developments will overcome the dark ages of my life.