2nd Post

"Oh, you're going to RIC?  That's nice!  What's your major?!"
"History"
(face of disgust) "Oh, jeez."

Yep. It's been the major "downer" (for lack of a better term) of just about every conversation I've had about college.  Nope, I'm not going to school to be a nurse, a business owner, or a mechanical engineer.  I'm going for history!

"Well, good luck getting a job with that one!" (laughs)

Yes.  Well, if I was interested in finishing college, skipping graduate school, and immediately receiving a well-paid job, then I would profess my fabricated love for pharmacy and successfully (and with quite a sum of wealth, might I add) fulfill all the dullness that life has to offer to me.

History is boring.  It's not promising.  It's for people who can't escape from the past.  Or my personal favorite- "The past already happened, we can't change it, so who CARES about history???"

These ignorant (and completely mistaken) comments make me infuriated (in case you can't tell).  This is why, when I read the article by Becker, I was pleased to find I finally had an answer to this type of question.  Well at least, an answer that's not walking away and/or accusing some one of being mindless.  By reducing history to its lowest terms and defining it as, "the memory of things said and done", Becker provides everyone with the irrefutable significance of history in everyday life.

Because let's face it- history is very commonly misunderstood by the general public.  As Becker describes, the subject is viewed as a requirement for education that most students dread fulfilling.  Little do these students know, they are fulfilling this requirement every day.  Becker's example of Mr. Everyman paying his coal bill reflects upon the essentiality of human reliance on history to perform daily tasks.

Becker says, "We are apt to think of the past as dead, the future as nonexistent, the present alone as real".  But if I were to present some one with an idea- the idea that we could easily predict the future and avoid astronomical conflict without any research, but rather just using our own knowledge- I surely would arouse his/her interest.  The answer is simply this: history.  In certain circumstances, history serves as an oracle and holds a precious amount of value in doing this.

Even if I was a nursing or a pharmaceutical major, I would be recalling history at every moment- how to perform a medical procedure, how many tablets will cure this patient?  In the past, what has worked?  In the past, how have we saved lives?

Did I hear some one say history was important?