the history students
hanging photos of ancient monuments on your walls
memorizing dates, creating a timeline in your mind’s eye
slow violin music
browsing wikipedia late at night
learning the constellations and wondering how many people have looked at them before you
crumbling buildings and faded paper
adding detail in the margins of your textbooks for the stuff they left out
soft sweaters and messy hair
pages of notes, written and underlined and studied again and again
watching documentaries for fun
analyzing primary sources, picking apart biases from fact
a cup of herbal tea on the desk, keeping you grounded
a hunger to understand all that has gone before you
sunsets that turn the sky the golden color of aged parchment
collecting biographies of your favorite historical figures, piling them on your shelf
treasured family heirlooms
notes written in fountain pen, hands stained with ink
visiting the same museum exhibits over and over, knowing there’s always more to learn
studying by candlelight
thick textbooks spread out across your desk
treating history as a cautionary tale, turning pages of notes into lessons for the future
