some other place, some other time [U.S. History I]

[isaaclincoln]

so take these words and sing out loud:
’cause everyone is forgiven now.


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Course Title: U.S. History I
Instructor: Haumann, Isaac N.
Time: 1:00 p.m.

He had done this for four years now. He must have known, when he decided to major in–and then to teach–history that it was going to be difficult, at least the parts he had such vivid memories of, but he had chosen to anyway. And now Isaac Haumann was reminded just how difficult it was. He sat at the desk of his slightly-musty classroom, though at least now, the windows were finally able to be opened, looking over his notes. The class–covering roughly a half of the four-hundred-year past (or so) of America–had gotten through the tumultuous 1840s and ’50s and were at last on that great conflict, the American Civil War. Isaac was not looking forward to teaching it any more now than he had been the first time. He stared at the page, at the names written there– “Lee,” “McClellan,” and of course “Lincoln.” He still felt as much part of that name as he did of his one; it had taken a dozen practice-lectures in the privacy of his own apartment to be able to discuss the man he had once been normally with the class. And honestly, it still required a bit of concentration and a significant amount of willpower to try and to remove himself from that time and that place.

They were beginning from the beginning, of course. Ft. Sumter. April 12, 1861. He remembered that day quite clearly; it would lay out his fate: the blackest four years of his life, and of the whole country’s history, were doomed to be the last. And to think, he had been so looking forward to getting back to Illinois and his law practice with good old Herndon. Things between himself and Mary had been looking up as well. Mary. Poor, dear Mary–or “Mother,” as he’d called her then and still thought of her from time to time–who had had a whole host of problems of her own to deal with. He could not help but wonder, now, at his son’s choice to commit her. He had threatened to do so himself, but perhaps if he had not died, there would have been no need… Had she been mad? He didn’t really think so. But people now did enjoy speculating!

What a mess the whole thing had been. And it still was. It seemed to be the defining conflict of the country, even now, and that made him sad. He had suggested they join together to “bind up the nation’s wounds,” but it hadn’t happened like that, and the ugly scars were still there, all too fresh; perhaps the wounds had simply been too deep…

Isaac knew there were students here who knew who he was; he knew some of them had lived through their own pieces of American history. He had encountered it every year–of course he had–and it was always a bit amusing to see passionate answers on this or that, almost defensive in some cases, or half-accusatory in others. He had struggled with it when he had been a student here as well. And he could not lie: he was much happier to be teaching it, able to choose what he said, than to be listening to another person spell out what had happened when it had happened to him.

Sighing, Isaac gathered the notes up. There was no reason to dwell on things he couldn’t change. They had happened–to the country, to him–and they were in the history books, and they were never going to be any different than those books, and his memory, recorded them. He had, however, been given a second life, and it was this life he should focus on, hard as it was to let the other go.

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Tonight’s the night the world begins again.

tag: any history students!
word count: 620
notest: kind of blah Dx

Template made by ANNA with lyrics from Better Days by THE GOO GOO DOLLS. Don't steal or she'll sik the 54th Massachusetts Regiment on yo' ass. =)[/center]

[Skylar Thomas Ingot]

Why can I never go back to bed?
Whose is the voice ringing in my head?

The reincarnated Thomas Edison, found history to be rather boring. He especially didn't like it when he was the material being taught, but currently that was the case. No they were learning about the Civil war, which he had learned about in every history class. Really, you'd think they would change materials when you moved up a year or something. sure each teacher went about it differently, and maybe they went a little more in depth with each upper class level, but still it was boring. It was comparable to reading a math book, but he actually liked math. He just hated reading the book. He'd rather just do a quick skim then do whatever the book asked him to do. With history there were so many dates and names and places to remember. It was terrible honestly, though he was pretty sure most people didn't feel that way. He was pretty sure most people in the RSOR actually liked history, but that wasn't the point. Present day Skylar did not like history, and thus he was pretty much staring off into space thinking about what he could do to fix what he had to fix after class today. It wouldn't be too complicated, but there were a few ways he could go about it, so might as well decide which he was going to use so he could get the fixing over with quickly and have a bit of time to do some reading or something rather than spending a ton of time pondering the ways to fix something then fixing it and then having to go to his next assignment. He did like breaks contrary to what anyone else might think. Maybe he could even take a nap or something seeing as he didn't really get much sleep most of the time. Was always too busy doing something else to sleep. Which was probably rather unhealthy, but he was managing. He could sleep when he was dead again. No big deal to him.

Speaking of naps though, Skylar was really starting to doze off in class. It did tend to happen during classes he had no interest in. Not like he wouldn't pass them anyway. All he had to do was a bit of studying from the book, and he could always steal someone else's notes without them caring too much about it. After all he fixed things for enough people that he eared quite a few favors. It also helped him get to know quite a few people, but mostly it was good for things like borrowing notes or getting caught up if he missed class for whatever reason. Sure he could probably use favors in some other way, but he never had a need to. Not as of yet anyway. He may have to eventually, but until that time came he'd continue using the favors he was owed for things like copying notes and stuff like that. Anyway though he was really spacing out bad in class, he should probably at least look like he was paying attention rather than looking like he was half asleep staring at the wall. Which, he was half asleep staring at the wall currently. He couldn't imagine Mr. Haumann liked that too much. He was surprised he hadn't been yelled at for it yet, or maybe he had been yelled at for it and he just wasn't paying attention. That was highly likely, though he assumed he would continue trying until he got his attention. It was entirely possible that he didn't care though. Or that he had said it without actually looking at him. Just so long as nobody poked his one side to get his attention he didn't care. Actually, he didn't want anyone poking either side to get his attention. One side was ticklish while the other was in pain. Either way he'd fall out of his desk and let out some sort of noise which would bring the entire class's attention to him. Skylar definitely didn't like the idea of that either, so maybe he should at least pretend to pay attention so that didn't happen? Though it was possible that would still happen if he was pretending to pay attention.

He let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair before flipping a few pages in his history book. It was a small miracle he had remembered to bring it being that he was kind of in a rush from almost being late. His last teacher had a question to ask him, so he had stayed after answering it and it ended up taking longer than it should have so thus he was almost late for class. Not that he didn't have an excuse that he could say, it was just the fact that he didn't have a written one, and he was late enough times with written excuses to annoy a few of his teachers and he didn't want to annoy them with lates that didn't have written excuses. Sure running had made his side hurt, but it wasn't that big of a deal. He didn't want to go to the doctor so he'd deal without pain killers. He doubted they'd give him anything more than a mild dose of IB profin anyway so it would be a wasted trip. He had that in his dorm, and had taken some before classes this morning, but it was starting to wear off, which mean he wasn't in the greatest of moods. If he hadn't stayed after last class he could have taken more, but he would just have to deal with it for now. It wasn't that bad, they weren't serious burns so they just stung. Especially when he moved so he tried not to fidget in his seat at all, but he did have to breathe so there was some moving required he couldn't completely avoid all movement. Unless he felt like holding his breath, but that would just cause it to hurt more after probably. Ah well, all he had to do was space out through the entire class and he wouldn't have to remember that it hurt. That shouldn't be too hard right? He let out a light yawn and rested his cheek on his hand trying to stay awake. He was failing at staying awake, but the important part was that he was trying at least right? Which would be about when he dozed off.

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words: 1111
note: oh Skylar
tag: Anna/ random history students.