History

The history of medicine, the history of film, the history of roman civilization, the universe, and so much more. History encompasses all the knowledge one could hope to learn, but more than that, it teaches the process through which everything was invented or discovered, and it does so by stories.

In Sophomore history, Mr Butler used flowcharts to show how the consequences of seemingly small decisions could give something the final push to escalate to any number of huge events. For example, the marxism flowchart can single handedly explain the rise and fall of communism. And, in my opinion, ultimately, the world's economics will follow as the flowchart shows.

I also love history because it aid us in studying human behavior through how other civilizations lived. Last year, I took Latin 1; every Friday we had culture days and learned exactly how the Romans lived their everyday lives. The fact that one thousand six hundred years ago, life was so similar to today is astounding. A typical roman day, for example, would consist of leaving their apartment to go to work, then in the mid afternoon, going to the local bathhouse to exercise, swim, and steam. And in the evening families could go out to enjoy chariot races, gladiator battles, or a play.

Last year, I also took Mr Butler's World Since 1945 class, and I was propelled further into my obsession. This class didn't follow the conventional teaching style that most history teachers adapt, the lecture and test, instead we were immersed in history. We watched popular shows from that time period and country that we were studying. We listened to music, watched documentaries, and even spent time analyzing the rise of music videos and their impact on music.

We started each class by discussing current events, which was amazing for someone like me who had never gotten into watching the news. Sometimes our conversations go so carried away that we just discussed these topics for the whole class period or watched a John Oliver episode.

I felt like I was experiencing history rather than just learning about it, and I think that is why I love studying it so much. Because history allows me to learn how other people thought and did things through the legacies they left behind.