While it was relatively easy to come up with a list of memorials that I have visited, it was more difficult to come up with the very first one. After some thought, my earliest memory of visiting a memorial was in elementary school with my family at Gettysburg.
I remember it was a beautiful spring day outside, and we had made it a day trip to visit from my home in Baltimore, MD. After being in the car for what felt like entirely too long, my siblings and I were excited to jump out and run around in the grass fields. As the oldest of my siblings though, I do remember understanding that it was a place of importance. I walked along the row of statues at the Gettysburg Battlefield with my dad, reading the names of the state memorials and noting the differences between them- some were statues of people, others were just slabs of stone with some words written on it. I also remember going to the Gettysburg National Cemetery, where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. It was a solemn place- not quite gloomy, as the sun was shining, and people didn't necessarily seem sad. You could tell the people visiting had the utmost respect for the things that occurred in that space, and even my siblings and I were quiet walking around.
By the end of our day there, I remember being thirsty and tired of walking- the allure of running through the fields and climbing on rocks had worn off. However, my memory of going to Gettysburg with my family is a combination of laughing and having fun outside while also stopping and trying to understand what happened there. The location of the state monuments where the Battle of Gettysburg happened made it easier to picture exactly the kind of sacrifice made.
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