Lost Civilizations

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to travel back in time—for a mysterious machine to plummet onto my grass and take me to see all the memorable moments in history. I’ve always wondered how lives were lived 100 years ago. Would life be less complicated than it is now?

Living in caves and consuming anything that looked edible, speaking in a language consisting of sudden movements and loud noises, and wearing thick pieces of fabric, mostly originating from a dead tiger’s skin—this was a period when cleanliness wasn’t the norm, and being gentle and approachable could result in a timely death. The cavemen were barbaric; they would kill and destroy anything if it meant survival. Still holding onto many habits that originated from the animal kingdom, they would yell and hunt for food as if there were no tomorrow. It’s bizarre that we humans were able to adapt to so many living conditions and slowly evolved from clueless cavemen to intelligent, civilized beings.

Then there are the lush dresses that require 10 layers to be put on each morning, tight corsets that compress each breath, big wigs, and fancy headwear that weighs more than numbers can count. It would be interesting to travel back to the age when royals ruled each country, where big titles and fancy last names were all that were required to live an extravagant life. Less fortunate families were beaten, abused, and put to work each morning to earn a loaf of bread which they were to use each day for a month. These families were the true heroes; they would work in ungodly circumstances and unfair hours, just to be rewarded with scraps. Despite how lavish and “beautiful” all the royals were portrayed, I believe that in this age, the only just people were the ones who were treated unjustly.

One period I can’t forget is the medieval times: iron swords, knight suits, and steel armor. People would learn to fight from a young age and live to defend their name. There were princesses, of course, but they knew how to fight and protect. They were heroic and were always looked down upon until it was their turn to enter the battlefield. This is the period in which fantasy movies had been modeled after slaying dragons and riding horses through vast fields of sunflowers to meet their destined lovers or to escape cruel fathers. The beautiful architecture that each castle presented, the breathtaking ballroom dresses, the secret gardens, vines crawling up castle windows and balconies. These times were iconic but designed for the most daring of people.

So much has happened to us humans—the way we live our lives, the clothes we wear, and how we are treated. Now we live in the age of mobile phones and AI-generated people. Soon, there will be a new age followed by another, until there are stories written by robots driving flying cars.

-Maya Bharadwaj is a teenager from Melbourne, Australia, who is passionate about traveling, writing, reading, music, and ballet. She loves to take the reader into her world with her words.