Transcript:

"Bonjour à tous ! Mon nom est Lucy Parsonson et je suis un jeune ambassadeur ! OK, pour me présenter d'abord, voici quelques choses à propos de moi : alors, j'ai dix-sept ans, je vais au Birkenhead College, je suis un quart Ecossais, et je suis née en Nouvelle Zélande mais j'étais déjà allée à l'étranger, à Rarotonga.

Comme loisir j'aime regarder les gens dans les lieux public, comme dans la rue et sur le transport public. Je m'amuse devenir qu'est-ce qui passe dans les vies des étrangers - c'est un jeu. Moi, j'apprécie les petits détails de la vie ; comme effleurer les grillages avec ma main pendant allant à l'école à pied, le frisson d'utilisation des bougies quand il y a une coupure de courant et danser seul à la musique dans ma chambre !

De plus, je joue du piano, je suis un membre de la chorale de l'école, l'équipe de débattre et le conseil d'arts. Mes sujets préférés sont ; le français (bien sûr !), l'Anglais et le Biologie.

Now, let me introduce to you my inquiry question. When I was doing a brainstorm on the subject I figured out that what really interests me is the physiology of war; what it does to the human mind, how it alters our behavior whether we’re in battle or holding the fort back at home, how society itself changes in such extreme circumstances, and how our moral and ethical system is changed; in other words, what is becomes socially acceptable during wartime, that wasn’t before?

Something that kept coming back up in my brainstorming was sacrifice. I wondered, what is a cause worth dying, or killing for? What did the soldiers of WWI sacrifice for? And would I, die for my country? That last question has become the driving statement for my enquiry.

Both of my great-grandfathers fought WWI in France, incidentally very near Amiens where the young ambassadors will visit later this year. In order to answer my inquiry I will use my family records to put myself in their shoes and find the knowledge that they had of the war to determine, if I would die for my country, as they were willing to do?

Both of my great-grandparents left for the war as young men, and both returned quite different people, and much older in spirit. In my blogs I will explore the lives of both men, piece together what kind of people they were. Did they prefer butter or margarine? What were their pet hates? Did they like to dance? What was it like to come from idyllic New Zealand in the early 1900s as young men straight into the hellish jaws of war, and then have to come back and be expected to carry on as though nothing happened?

Follow my blog posts as I answer these questions, rediscover the lost history of my ancestors, and go right to the depths of my own philosophy to determine, “would I die for my country?”

Salut, and thanks for watching."