I always learn something here and it is so very complex, as stated, that I want some understanding of what’s going on. I always have a big sigh of relief and thankful I live in a democracy and can understand why so many give their lives to be free from tyranny.

I was fairly strong in my history courses during high school, but I managed to avoid taking any history courses in college since I received 3 hours of credit in American History by exam and fulfilled the rest of my Humanities courses taking English literature. I avoided the history courses for a few reasons--I procrastinate on writing assignments, there were better writers in college than I was, and finally the history department leaned strongly into the women's studies courses while my interest was in American and European history.

The only contact that I had with the history department was when one of the professors delivered the commencement address when I graduated and I fell asleep. I spoke with one of my classmates and his parents a few years afterwards and everyone said it was the worst commencement speech they ever heard--then they offered to watch the videotape with me like they wanted to see me suffer. By the way, the classmate received his minor in history and said that normally the professor was very engaging which is why he was suggested to deliver the commencement address.

Memorizing dates for battles never was interesting but now I know why the battle was fought, who won the battle and what happened after the victory. They didn’t teach it that way and so I was not interested or a good student. I’ll watch a documentary or the History Channel, the travel channel ..anything that explains how, what and why it matters..as long as I’m watching, I want to learn. Now the DU is another source I can depend on.