Philosopher and political theorist Edmund Burke once said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” That one quote made me think, Sure, history is important, but how important?

Burke was not the first man to tell me that history repeats itself. My father, Pete Makarov, always tells me the same thing. He majored in history and minored in political science, so I live in a history biased home, yet I too enjoy studying, reading and talking history.

What is history really? The study of a bunch of dead people and events that happened hundreds to thousands of years ago? In a way, yes, but it is much more than that. History tells a story–a story of us as humans, a story of the world we live in and a story of why we are where we are today.

No matter what history class you take, from United States History to Art History, there is always a story to be told. That’s what makes history history. History is very different from other subjects studied, such as math or science.

In math and science, we learn arithmetic operations and problem solving. In English we learn to read and write, but in history we read a story. History does not tell you want to think about it, rather it guides you to form your own opinion about the subject.

The stories being told in history are important for everyone to study. The people we have studied must have done something for us to keep talking about them. They must have done something that changed the way the world works or the way we think.

The events that happened centuries ago must have defined something or must have changed the world. History is like a journalist, it records what happened when we could not be there.

I understand that history is not for everyone, but just because you do not enjoy the class does not mean that the study of history is not important. History is a subject that must be studied.

It is not the world’s history or our nation’s history that is important, but your own history. Your story is important to study and to think about. History is where we were, where we are today and where we are going to be in the future. Our history can explain all of this.

Back to Burke’s quote, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” If we do not know our own history, our mistakes will be made twice. If we know how to study history, we can better understand not only people, but ourselves.

I started studying history because of the story that it tells–the story of where we were, where we are and where we are going to be.

So go on, study history; as if you are looking for the answer on how we can prevent that from happening again or how can you, as an individual, be great like that man or woman. Study history not because you have to, rather because within history lies the answers.