Embracing Darkness

With one week left till my Thesis is complete and turned in, I look to what I will need in the days leading up to the deadline. Coffee, little sleep, and possibly a wig after I tear all my hair out. However, if there is one thing I have learned from this process it is how much I love my topic. While violence and death may not be an easy subject for many to talk about, it is imperative to human life. We all must go through it, and we all must experience it. Some sooner than others, and some have such little interaction with it at all they may not know what the big deal is.
Yet when it comes to Dark Tourism I have found that if the truth is dark, then historians want to tell it. Because the truth is the truth, no matter how dark it is. At this point I have interviewed four places that can be considered spots of Dark Tourism, and when asked what drove each place they all said the same thing: The Facts. Historians and places of history care about their patrons, and they care about attracting their patrons, but the pursuit of the truth and the exposure and telling of that truth is their main focus.
I couldn't be happier, prouder, and more excited to enter this world. With my thesis drawing to a close I will be aiming to sit with it all this week to finish with the material I have. While I may stress, I am also excited to finish, sharing it with my peers. The interviews I gathered gave me such an incite into how these places run, how historical sites respond to their own Dark Tourism that it would be crazy for me not to be excited.
I have laid out a plan where I take every time I won't be immersed in other work to devote to my thesis to accomplish this goal. From there, it is the poster, and after that, graduation.