As Columbus Day Weekend approaches, there is always an argument whether this day should be named Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day. This argument sparks up every year around this time and it has been a hot topic for decades. Everyone knows that Columbus Day is a day that students get off from school and adults get off of work to celebrate the things that Christopher Columbus did, but I personally believe that there is nothing to celebrate. Most of the students here have grown up learning about all of the “good” things that Columbus did but then later on we learned that things got worse and things were different then we expected them to be. We were celebrating all of these terrible things and it’s even worse that we were being taught the wrong thing or things were being sugar coated at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my days off from school but if it isn’t for the right reasons I feel that it’s taking away from time that the school can use to educate more students and other adults on why this topic is so important. 

     In one of my classes, a student brought up the fact that we don’t have school on October 11th because it was Indigenous Peoples Day. The teacher then spoke up and said “No it’s Columbus Day” and then the student and the teacher began to keep saying “Indigenous Peoples Day” and “Columbus Day” back and forth and eventually more students joined in. Legally the name of the day is Columbus Day but a lot of students here and a lot of other people are much more comfortable with saying Indigenous Peoples day.  I remember being in the 5th grade and doing an activity in my history class on whether or not this day should be celebrated or should the name be changed. Now being a senior, it’s crazy to see that this is still a topic that is still undecided and how this day is still being celebrated. 

     Around America, less and less Americans chose to stop celebrating this day or many people have been committed to celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. Each year people feel the need to not celebrate this day and just decide to treat it like another normal day. I feel like the name of the day should be changed and I know that there is a large number of people who think the same thing. Although not much progress has been made about this topic, as a community we can come together to make the changes to get things going in the right direction. To all my fellow readers, if you choose to celebrate Columbus day or Indigenous Peoples Day remember what you are celebrating for and is it really something that you should be celebrating.