“Shh. Silence. Silenceo.” This voice echoes in the back of my head and I instantly remember where I am. The Sistine Chapel. The room is packed from wall to wall. The hushed voices of people trying to not talk is distracting. I focus my attention to the first wall I see. I am unable to believe that I am in the same room that Michelangelo painted on his back. A piece that was filled with Reniassance ideas such as religion not always being the center of the universe and people thinking for themselves.

The reminder to not speak reminds me that I am in a place where history was made. I look up.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is actually above my head. The pictures look nothing like this. An image in a book cannot show the vivid colors that make this masterpiece. Being inside this room is the only way to truly appreciate Michelangelo’s intellegene.

I take a deep breath to calm my racing heart. The room is filled wih people looking up, left, right – most in awe of what they are looking at. There is an atmosphere to the room that is uplifting and takes my breath away. I look up and catch a glimpse of The Creation. My breath is taken away when I realize how beautiful it is. Knowing that Michelangelo placed God in front of a brain to symbolize the idea that humans are able to make decisions for themselves makes it mkre impactful because the message was revolutionary.

I am unable to move my head from the ceiling. I hold back tears as I try to take in everything around me. There is no use taking pictures because a picture could never capture the atmosphere of the room and fine detail of each section.

For me, being in this room inspires me because it is hard to imagine one person creating this large of a work. This work is so much more than a beautiful painting. It is everything that Michaelangelo was trying to do with his ideas. He painted people in hell for critizing him. He wanted people to know that they could think for themselves and not rely on the church to make their decisions.

There is something uplifting about being in a famous room like this. The ideas alone behind each section are larger than any person in the room. When I was surrounded by everything in the Sistine Chapel, I realized that most of the things in my life were significant. What mattered was appreciating everything that Michelangelo had created. There was no room to think about myself. It was a life changing experience to be in a room that was so important to the development in the way we think today.