I know what you're probably thinking; "Museums are such a drag." Yes, anyone can say that museums are boring, after all, what are they more than just giant halls filled with various objects and artifacts. However, as cliche as it sounds, looking closer can change your whole perspective.

My dad is a former eighth grade US History teacher. When my sister and I were little, he would take the us to various historical sites throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. As you can imagine, we were not exactly thrilled about going on these trips. Who wants to be stuck in a car for hours so that you can go to a boring historical sites and museums? It was not exactly a kid's idea of summer fun.

My perspective on museums all changed when I was thirteen. My family took a trip to Washington DC over spring break. We toured the city and visited the Smithsonian. This time around, I was actually excited to go to a museum. We saw so many artifacts that shaped American history from Abraham Lincoln's hat to Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Suddenly, museums didn't seem like such a drag to me anymore.

This past week, I had the chance to visit the Art Institute of Chicago for two of my art history classes. I not only found myself excited to go, but art history fan-girling once the buses dropped us off. Everything that I had learned in my classes was coming to life. I saw pieces of art that we had talked about in class in person, right before my eyes. Some of the art looked so real compared to the Power Point slides the professors had shown us in the weeks leading up to this moment.

What really spoke to me was the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks. It is a very popular and heavily parodied painting, which I'm sure you've probably all seen at one point or another. We had talked about it in class at the beginning of the semester, with an in depth analysis of it's composition and symbolism. To actually see it in person was amazing to me. The good thing about going to an art museum is that you can get close (but not too close) to a painting too see all of the hidden details and brushstrokes.

So why do museums matter? Yes, they can be boring at times, but they teach us a lesson wether we want to learn it or not. They give us artifacts from harder times in our history and tell us "those who do not learn are doomed to repeat it." They also give us artifacts from brighter times and tell us that it's okay to repeat. Museums and history tell us about our past, but also what our future should be like.