What is Your Favourite School Subject?

By: Jessica Lee

https://www.concordia.ca/academics/graduate/history-phd.html

Recently, I asked my grandma what her favourite subject in school was. To this she replied “History. I love learning about the past and reading about historical culture.”. At first, I disagreed with her answer as someone who is not the biggest fan of history or social studies. To me, history was boring and I didn’t have any interest in learning about the world and its past events.

She told me that learning about the past and trying to conceptualize why the world is how it is today is important. It leaves you wondering how the times have changed and why they changed. History and past events are important and give insight into the world today, and make you think about how the world would be different if history was different.

She told me this was the same for people. Their experiences shape who they are today. She told me that if you try to learn and understand someone’s past, it can make it easier to empathize with them. When you go from sympathizing to empathizing, you achieve a different type of depth and perspective.

Growing up, my grandmother and I were not close. With her living in a different country and a language barrier between us, interacting with her was difficult and oftentimes uneasy. From my memory, our interactions were brief and often used the fewest words possible. It was hard to break the barrier that made things awkward and uncomfortable between us. When I asked my mother about my grandma and her past, it made it easier to understand her and how she acts. Why she is the person she is today.

As someone who spends most of their time and studies in the STEM field, it made me reflect on how I was neglecting another side of learning. The world of arts and literature is equally as important as sciences and math. It was easy to forget and pocket away those areas after graduating high school, as they were not mandatory for my major. I encourage you to reflect and discover areas you are unfamiliar with and see what you are missing out on because when you do, you bring light onto topics you would not have the chance to discover while staying in your comfort zone.