First-year AB Mass Communication

AMA University – Online Education

History bores most students and I used to be one of them. I know how it feels to memorize this and that, like who was born when and what happened where. It often felt like we were expected to treat history as a checklist of facts. But something changed.

During my second year at the National Teachers College (NTC), we had a subject called Readings in Philippine History. I consider it my most favorite, thanks to my former professor, Sir Yson. Before this class, history did not really excite me, which is odd for a social studies student because aside from the usual reminder that “we study history so we don’t repeat the past,” I did not see what else there was to look forward to. It felt distant, important, yes, but disconnected from my life. That changed when Sir Yson taught us that history does not really repeat itself but it is the very people who allow harmful systems to thrive, who overlook injustice, who stay silent when it matters most. That cycle is not about the past coming back, it is about us not learning enough from those who came before.

I then began to understand how we underestimate the work of local historians, often seen as only preserving records, but in truth they are the unsung heroes we have always needed as a guiding path in shaping national identity.

My love for history grew alongside my admiration for historians like Sir Xiao Chua and Dr. Ambeth Ocampo, whose works made history feel less like a subject and more like a shared inheritance we carry and owe it to ourselves to understand.

Sir Chua, through his It’s XiaoTime segment, brings so much heart into the way he shares stories about our past. Dr. Ocampo also has a gift for humanizing our historical figures as people who loved, failed, laughed, and feared just like us. I rewatched the pilot episode of Dr. Ocampo’s podcast on YouTube where he emphasized that in an age where information is everywhere, it is hard to know which ones are reliable, which makes the work of academic historians even more necessary.

Looking back, one of the biggest lessons I learned as a student is that history has never been boring, only the way it is often taught makes it feel that way. What excites me most is knowing these lessons do not have to stay buried in books or locked in schools. When history is shared with curiosity and real connection, whether in classrooms, social media, podcasts, or public lectures, it becomes a tool for growth and a way to shape a more thoughtful and responsible society. That is why I believe historians deserve more recognition. They are not just quiet scholars working in the background; they preserve the past, educate the present, and prepare us for a better future. Their work is as essential as that of any nation-builder.