He heard the click of the television turning on, and listened for the oddly distinguishable sound of a voice-over within the program his father was watching. The 2nd grader dashed to the couch his father was resting on and sat next to him, watching the historical program that painted the television screen. The information and testimonies fascinated him, deeming this 2nd grader a “history nut.”
And still to this day, senior Parker Colby is still as involved in learning about history as he was when he was in 2nd grade. If you delve a little deeper, you’ll see his involvement is mostly honed in on one specific aspect of history: wars.
If it wasn’t for the help of his dad, who is also a “history nut,” Colby wouldn’t have grown such a passion for this topic of history…this topic that identifies several defining impacts on reality.
“I love learning about wars because you can learn from the mistakes of others,” Colby said. “I what life was like during war times and how countries have developed through them.”
When he researches wars, he gathers information from various historical sites and from soldiers’ testimonies, since they paint a picture of what the war was really like. His greatest war interest is World War II, as well as the Civil War.
With the information that Colby has accumulated over the years, he has surprised his friends, and even teachers, with what he knows.
But he doesn’t want to obtain these facts to just impress people with what he knows. Colby dreams to write and publish a historically accurate book about wars. He wants to do this because he feels his knowledge on this could mean a lot to others, and there is so much to go off of that will make a written war story interesting.
He has already begun drafting it, and his idea is to include seven stories of different men throughout the course of World War I. The stories of these men will overlap with each other, as they will see each other but never really make direct contact…all the while telling an accurate story of the war.
Colby is determined to accomplish his book, and hopes to write more books on wars, such as the Vietnam War and the Civil War.
He also hopes to use this love for history and wars in college and his career. Though he does not know exactly which college he wants to go to, or which career to pursue, he is in the process of figuring that out. A few job interests of his are being a historian or an archeologist.
Colby is not one to take history for granted, so pursuing a career pertaining to that is very important to him.
“A lot of people that I’ve talked to really don’t give a care about history,” Colby said. “They just think, ‘Oh, it’s just some boring class.’ But to me, [history] is almost like a way of life.”
Here’s hopes to his book(s) being published, and to his future.