April 17-April 19

I cannot believe it but this week has been the final week. I felt like I just arrived for the internship for the first time in January. Overall, I am very pleased with my progress. This week I caught up on all my work, finishing all the scans and the cataloging of metadata concerning the 1957 sermon folder. I look forward to seeing my digitized work on RICHES even though I know that some time will pass before that happens. Overall, I am proud of the work I've done and feel very satisfied with the skills that I have learned. As an aspiring archivist, I have always heard of scanning documents and metadata but I have never gotten the opportunity to do those things for myself. Thanks to this internship and in particular the First Unitarian Church of Orlando for giving me the opportunity, I learned how to do those activities by myself and how to apply them. Now I am much more confident in reaching my goal to be an archivist now that I have a better understanding of the nature of what my work would be as one. Having completed an internship, I encourage other history students to complete at least one before graduating from UCF. An internship not only gives credit but it also imparts valuable skills that can be used in the future. Also, an internship is a very useful thing to have on a resume because it reflects experience and responsibility.

Another thing that I appreciated greatly was the historical knowledge that I handled and gained for myself. Reading about 1950's and 1960's Florida society through the eyes of a liberal minister in the south was very eye opening. The Florida commented and criticized by Reverend Fuller is eerily similar to the Florida that we live in today. Reverend Fuller worried about the Cold War, rampant consumerism, modern technology, violence in third world countries, racism and antisemitism. Nowadays we still worry about racism, international conflict, consumerism and the dangers posed by technology. Reverend Fuller's answers to the troubling questions posed by these things still ring true. Reverend Fuller discussed how, while most people wanted to do good, it is hard for people to step out and go beyond. To challenge themselves to reach out and help other people. During his own time, Reverend Fuller felt that a social revolution was occurring and that men could potentially grow in goodness. While disagreeing with most aspects of traditional religion, Reverend Fuller believed in the concept of men being cast in the image of the divine. That when God created man he saw that "His work was good." Indeed, Reverend Fuller believed that men and even the universe as a whole were intrinsically good. Evil only occurred when men became detached from reality. It was Reverend Fuller's explicit faith in the goodness of the universe that stood out the most to me. And I believe that, especially in this day and age, having faith in your fellow man is not only important but vital to living a healthy life.