Jason's Story
Copyright© 2025 by writer 406
Chapter 39
Grey Wolf Hall was one of the newer buildings on the Everett Community College campus, all glass and sustainable design that contrasted sharply with the older brick structures nearby. Jason found his shared office on the second floor, a cramped space with two desks, overflowing bookshelves, and a window that looked out over the main quad.
A woman in her mid-forties was already there, arranging books on her half of the shelves. She turned when Jason entered, her face lighting up with a smile.
“You must be Jason Stone. I’m Sonja Anderson—English Literature. We’re officemates.” She extended her hand enthusiastically. “I have to say, I’m a little starstruck. I loved ‘Chilkoot Pass.’ My daughter and I both read it.”
Jason set down his messenger bag and shook her hand. “Thanks. And don’t worry, I’m properly housebroken. I won’t leave coffee cups everywhere or steal your desk supplies.”
Sonja laughed. “That’s a relief. My last officemate was a philosophy professor who stole my stapler for an existential thought experiment.”
“I promise to use the stapler only for its intended purpose.”
They spent a few minutes establishing the office-sharing logistics—desk space, shelf allocation, coffee pot protocols—before Jason headed to his classroom for his first official college teaching session.
History 102: History of the Twentieth Century was scheduled for 10 AM in a room that could hold forty students. By 9:55, about thirty had filtered in, a demographic mix similar to Capitol Hill High. Traditional college-age students sat alongside working adults.
Jason was arranging his materials when he heard familiar voices near the door.
“Mr. S! Remember us?”
He looked up to see three grinning faces he hadn’t expected: Sarah Thompson, Steve Walker, and Mike Billings, all former students from his Seattle survival classes.
“Of course. What are you three doing here?”
Sarah plopped into a front-row seat. “Thanks to your classes, we figured out that going to ECC for the first two years saves a ton of money. We can knock out our basic requirements, then transfer to UW or Western as juniors. Way smarter than taking out huge loans for freshman composition and intro classes.”
Steve nodded. “We’re carpooling from Seattle three days a week. Actually, we’re looking for a house to rent up here.”
“And we heard you were teaching twentieth-century history,” Mike added. “No way we were missing that.”
Jason felt an unexpected warmth at seeing them. “Well, welcome to college. Fair warning—I grade harder than I did in detention.”
“We can handle it,” Sarah said confidently.
At exactly 10 AM, Jason moved to the front of the classroom, and the conversations died down naturally.
“Good morning. I’m Jason Stone, and this is History 102: History of the Twentieth Century.
Before we get into logistics and syllabus details, I want to talk about why we’re here and what I hope you’ll get from this class.”
He wrote on the whiteboard: “Why does history matter?”
“Anyone want to take a shot at that?”
An older student raised his hand. “So we don’t repeat past mistakes?”
“Common answer, but not entirely accurate,” Jason replied. “We repeat past mistakes constantly despite knowing the history. World War One was supposed to be the war to end all wars—how’d that work out?”
A few students chuckled.
“History doesn’t prevent mistakes,” Jason continued. “But it does help us recognize patterns. And recognition can protect us as individuals. Pattern recognition is what I want to teach you this term.”
“For example, ‘everybody knew’ in 1929 that the bull market would go on forever, so they didn’t need conservative investments. How’d that work out? Same goes for the housing crash of 2008.
So the next time you’re on a golf course and someone gives you a great tip on a stock because the market is unbelievably bullish and it’s a sure thing, you might remember the poor saps in 1929, or the dot-com bubble in 2000, or the banking and real estate crash of 2008. You’d be surprised how few people remember that what goes up comes down on a depressing basis, even the so-called smart money on Wall Street.”
He began writing on the board:
“PATTERNS OF THE 20TH CENTURY:
· Interventionism vs. Isolationism
· Economic Booms and Busts
· Pandemics and Public Health Crises
· Ordinary People Navigating Extraordinary Times”
“The entire twentieth century,” Jason explained, “has been a push-pull between people who think America should be actively involved in world affairs and people who think we should mind our own business. That debate is still happening today in almost identical terms.”
A young woman in the middle row raised her hand. “But don’t we learn from history about which approach works better?”
“That’s the thing—both approaches work sometimes and fail other times, depending on context. What history teaches us is that the answers aren’t simple. We need to learn how to recognize complex situations where multiple factors interact in unpredictable ways.”
Jason moved to the next point. “Economic booms and busts. The twentieth century had the Roaring Twenties followed by the Great Depression. Post-World War Two prosperity was followed by stagflation in the seventies. The 90s had a Dot-com boom and subsequent bust. The 2000s had a housing bubble and financial crisis. These cycles keep happening. History doesn’t teach us how to prevent them, but it teaches us how to recognize the warning signs and understand the human factors that drive them.”
Steve Walker was taking notes rapidly. Jason recognized the same engaged attention he’d shown during survival classes.
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