1215, 1492, 1517, 1806 and 1914. Can you identify any historically significant event that occurred in these years? Please tell me something...anything? In this day in age, it is possible to simply type in a date on Google click search, and then know what happened. Perhaps we have found ourselves in a new age where trivial knowledge of historical trivia is useless. Many students will ask, “Why must I learn history; there is nothing important to learn about these dates. I am here to tell you that I am not going to be on Jeopardy anytime soon.” So what is the point?

No really, what is the point of learning history? Is there one? Many well-rounded, articulate individuals believe that there is a reason behind learning dates and events from history. For me, history has always been something that I have found to be interesting because it was like a story with constantly changing characters and an opportunity to learn from good decisions and from horrendous mistakes. It is however, something you’ll never be tested on during a standardized test like the ACT or SAT; so, there must not be any value in it.

There must be a reason behind learning the year the Magna Carta was signed and became one of the first documents to give the people the ability to have a say in their government. About Columbus sailing and finding what was thought to be India but was actually America. That the Protestant Reformation changed many religious beliefs that are still held today. About Napoleon becoming Emperor of France and trying like many before and after him to conquer the world. How the assassination of Prince Ferdinand and his wife led to World War I and demonstrating how showing the world can join sides in order to try to destroy each other and then save each other. The cultures we learned from often provide a lesson we can learn and progress from. Those events, even though only a few in history, have changed some of the very basic concepts in our lives. Thus, do we choose to study the past in order to learn from mistakes of others and to create a better future to live in? Or do we just repeat mistakes by our predecessors so we don’t have to make new decisions and choices when facing the unknown? Further, does the past define who we are to become?

History is all around us, whether we are walking down the street looking at old buildings or speaking to a friend, it is like the very air we breath- inevitable. In Atonement, Robbie tries to escape the lies told by a young girl attempting to create a world more suited to her desires, while destroying the lives of her sister Cecil and Robbie. After maturing to adulthood, does Briony realize the mistakes she made as a child who desperately wanted her adolescent crush on Robbie to become a reality. But as an old woman, Briony spent most of her life and her last novel trying to write the happy ending to a sad story her sister and Robbie had.

How odd it seems that we must look back to our past only to help define who we will be, to understand the effect of the events in our lives, and the impact we can have on the lives of others in an unknown future.