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Coming Back to What I Once Ignored
How I’m Learning to See the Humanities Differently”
If you had asked me a few years ago what the Humanities meant, I would’ve said “history.” And if I’m being honest, I probably would’ve followed it up with something like, “And I’ve never really liked history.”
That’s the truth. History classes never sparked anything in me. I sat through the lectures, flipped through the timelines, memorized what I needed to for the test, and moved on. It always felt like I was learning about things too far removed from my life.
What did ancient cities or philosophers or classical paintings have to do with me and my future?
Back then, I thought of the Humanities as something old. Something passive. Something for other people — people who liked museums and knew how to pronounce Renaissance artists’ names without Googling them.
But something shifted recently. I was writing about what the Humanities might mean to other people, people who actually do find them important, and I started to feel something I hadn’t expected: curiosity.
I began to realize that for many people, the Humanities are more than just school subjects. They’re a way to answer questions that don’t have simple answers. Like Where do I come from? What do I value? Why do people…
