Standing in front of the Statue of David I wonder if Michelangelo thought that thousands of years later people would come from all over the world to see his art. Anyone who has ever been to Europe probably agrees that the history there is overwhelming. Before I came I never truly realized how young America is. Basically everything we have or do in America comes from history oversees.
How many students have sat in a history class and wondered why they were there? Out of all the classes children take throughout their life, history is usually the common least favorite. It has the biggest text books, the most names to memorize and notoriously the most boring teachers. I can remember thinking, “Why am I learning this, I will never need to know it.’’ Then as the years pass by, I began to see more and more how the past haunts the present. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We are not the makers of history. We are made by history.”
Think of your favorite movie or book. It is probably based off an older story that has been revamped into a more modern version. The movie She’s the Man was based off the plot of Shakespere’s Twelfth Night and The Lion King was based off of Hamlet. Stories are passed down from generation to generation, common sayings like “throw down the gauntlet” used by people every day not knowing where it came from. No matter where you look, history is there. The Olympics, which bring the whole world together, date back to eighth century B.C. Everything we do is dictated from the past, yet most people choose to sleep in history class instead of pay attention. We cannot change the past, but we can still learn from it.
Just like looking at someone’s medical history, we can acquire so much by looking back at the past. It can help us understand the world and other cultures. Whenever people travel one of the first things they do is look up food, but next they should do is look at the history. That way they can know important customs, taboos and the reason people act differently. Not just abroad, but at home by looking up your town’s history you may realize something that you pass by every day is much more than it seems. You can also learn more about yourself just by going back in your family history. Maybe the reason you act a certain way links back to a family member you never knew about. Even studying the people around you can help you make better connections within your community. Studying past leaders lives and habits can make us be better people. Just like judges investigate past court decisions to see what to do, learning about past leaders can help us see how to move forward. The reason we keep old mementos is not because they look cool on display, they were left behind to teach us. We need the old monuments covered in moss, the ruins dusted with sand, the faded art and the 1,000 year old books to know where we come from. We can learn from the mistakes of the past to have a brighter future. Just like George Santayana once said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
So next time you are in history class sit up a little straighter and listen because you just might discover something new.
