Credit to Jimmy on Pexels.

History is attacked as being a “useless” subject in school. The system does not do history justice. I’ll give you that. Memorizing random dates and names is a waste of your time. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

But history might be the most important subject as far as I’m concerned. There are so many benefits people rarely discuss.

Get Perspective

Life can seem unbearable at times. When there’s a new update that ruins the functionality of your favorite program (I’m looking at you Microsoft Word). Or you don’t land the dream job you want after graduating college. Life is tough.

To live is to suffer. But we know very little about suffering. Sometimes, I start to think, “my life is so hard.” When I do, I try to remember what life was like for people in Medieval Europe. It was insanely difficult.

Imagine being the property of some Lord or Baron. They were literally born to rule you. Their father owned your father. And there’s no fighting against it. That’s the way life is. Just imagine that being your reality for a second. How terrible would that be?

Or even worse, some random army decides to attack and kill everyone in your village. You get to watch your family and friends perish. Suffer. And this was all before the Geneva convention, so the invaders could be as cruel as they wanted. If they feel like torturing your infant daughter…