A Connection with the Past

As some of you may already know, as a university student I had a hard time making up my mind about what subject I wanted to earn my degree in. While the whole story about that crucial decision is a long one and best suited for another time, I'd like to share a little bit about what I studied and the conclusions I came to in the process.


I graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.A. in History and another B.A. in Romance Languages and Literatures. (This means that I studied Spanish and Italian...so it didn't make a lot of sense for me to move to Japan, did it? I'll have to explain that another time, too.) One of the most appealing aspects of those subject areas was the exploration I got to do with documents, stories, and records of the past.


For me, the study of history has been interesting for quite a few reasons, but I know that a lot of students don't really like it; they tend to struggle to understand why it's necessary to know what has already happened and how that knowledge can be applied successfully and relevantly to their lives. It is precisely the answer to those questions that has made history one of the most fascinating things that I have ever studied.


Personally, learning about ways of life in the past has always intrigued me. Perhaps it is this quality that attracted me to historical studies in the first place. I love to read about lifestyles, habits and circumstances that are different than my own. In fact, I could never really describe myself as a creative person, but the study of the past has provided me with descriptions of things more wonderful, more complex, and less predictable than anything I could have envisioned on my own.


In my university classes, one of the best things that I experienced was reading primary source material. "Primary source" is a term used most often by historians, writers and reporters to refer to information that comes directly from someone who experienced something. It is not a story that is recounted by another person, it is first-hand information. What I learned to love about these types of documents is that even though I might be reading something that was written by a Greek philosopher 2,000 years ago, there are questions, emotions and logic that I can sympathize with.


Even though the life circumstances of the original writer or subject of the material might seem quite the opposite of mine, the study of history is the best way I know that enables us to see reflections of ourselves that span decades, centuries, millennia. While I realize that this type of literature may not be so appealing to some people, I'd like to encourage you to find other ways to explore the past. Visit museums, take a tour of the ruins of a building that was constructed hundreds of years ago, or simply take the time to sit down and have a conversation with your grandparents. You won't regret it. In fact, you will treasure those experiences.


In English, we occasionally quote the philosopher George Santayana to emphasize the importance of historical study: "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." In other words, we cannot learn from the mistakes of our past or improve upon our societies without taking time to find out where we have done wrong before. This is very true, but I'd also like to draw attention to another invaluable aspect of this type of study: to study history is to remind yourself of your humanity. The knowledge that we are at the same time equally as fallible, ignorant and mortal as our ancestors is a humbling realization to reach, but can only serve to make us better human beings in the end.

▼▽▼▼【講師】Melanie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Trip to Kobe】2009.06.19 (Fri)