History tells you how the world works. It tells us who we are, where we've been, how we got here. Warts and all. It is powerful — there are many who don't like these stories, because they don't match up with what they'd prefer to believe.

When you research and write history, you are sitting with the dead, the long past. You are simmering in their essences. You're reading their mail. You're recreating their world, in your own head. Then you find a way to write it out so that it gets recreated in other people's heads without them having read all the mail.

It combines the empirical and the creative with a touch of the voyeuristic. It is both deeply humanistic and a social science. It is methodologically unruly, but with a commitment to crafting narratives that convey deep truths. It's about trying to create threads through time, connections to the long gone, by any means necessary. It gives you perspectives on the present — arguably, you can't understand much without knowing history — and gives you ideas about some of the possible directions of the future.

There are many good things to be said about other fields of study too, of course. But this is what history means to me, and all of these things appeal to me more than anything else.

Taking another perspective then the intrinsic value of studying the past - which of course has been the most intriguing, in terms of violence, romance, humour, and much more, I recently applied for a job way outside my field.

When I was in conversation with the man responsible for the companies Euro/Africa division (HR was indisposed I believe), he asked my why I wanted to work at the company. Of course I told him all the usj, but also I asked whether he had ever seen a job advertisement asking for an historian, outside maybe of the odd one asking for a librarian. He concurred he hadn't, but before I could speak on the value of the historical profession he hacked the conversation. The guy, that had studied managerial masters in a very notable instituation, he said, 'you know, there are some many law students, people studying economics, things that are supposedly a course that will yield you a job. But all these people have the some outlook, and do we really need more lawyers and economists?' He proceded to say that he really wanted to have more people in the company that knew more about the world and how it came to be, what its construction blocks were (I dont think he said construction blocks, cant remember, im paraphrasing).

Studying history makes people aware of the interrelations that form a society, not just today, but over the course of deccennia. This knowledge of the longe durée is just what a lot of companies are craving these days. It will help you to be analytical, to be able to interpret huge texts, in different styles and languages, you will put in a 5000 word report without a blush.

And also, besides doing something you are interested in (which will help putting time and energy in your studies), you can become a specialist in a subject not many will know about. As any of the people here that are experts in their own fields; truely knowing all about a subject will give you confidence and the ability to do anything you want.

Well, for me it was because I was tired of always having so limited options in regards to historical subjects at University. Everything was either about Europeans, WWI & II, or Modern America with a ever so slight offering of USSR history. Subjects such as India, the Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia and to a greater extent Africa was either missing or were not offered at a more significant degree as the above mentioned topics were.

I choose Central Asian history, in particular the Chagatai Khanate from the 14th-17th centuries, particular because there was so limited options to even understand what went on during this time as only a handful of scholars even work that areas and that too a significantly generalised overview. There is an open treasure trove of resources to exploit and use. Thus, to make my mark on the scholarly world, and to bring to light this understudied area, and more importantly to showcase that history existed throughout the world, rather than just in Europe, that is why I chose my area and why I'm studying history.

I chose history (art history in my case) because of my love of the "deep dive." Studying history means that as part of my job, I can allocate the bulk of my day to learning everything I can about a given subject. The subject you pick becomes almost arbitrary after a while but the knowledge of how to learn, and of all that you need to learn, stays with you. It is very humbling to be faced with all that you do not know on a daily basis and I feel that it has made me more cautious about what I don't know and confident about what I do know.

History has also allowed me to see the bigger picture and has trained me as a thinker and a researcher. I have become more organized and efficient and I think that these qualities make me a valuable asset in a number of fields. But most of all, I truly love reading and research and I am constantly aware of how lucky I am to travel and study in archives. Hopefully the research I produce will be considered valuable down the line.