History or Our Story?

I spent over three hours wandering around Hampton Court Palace and gardens today. How did I benefit from the experience? Good question. Most of those three hours resulted in photos that I plan to put in my modeling portfolio because 5'2" models are in demand right now,

a video filmed by Katy that demonstrates my acting chops Blair Witch style and a good hour of Katy and me cracking on the voice-over artist who played a young page working in Henry VIII's apartments on the audio guides. Yes, we did appreciate some of what we saw, both in the architecture and gardens, but I am the first to admit that we definitely were not exhibiting our most mature behaviors.

Why did we behave in such a way? I was wondering the same thing about an hour ago and here's what I came up with:

When you grow up in the United States, history is not exactly on the level of European History, which is why I call US History "baby history" and European History "real history". When we learn about the history of the US, we very often know of a family member who was involved, be it an ancestor who is living or dead, though recently so. My grandparents have experienced about a third of the history since the US became an independent entity. Europeans, including Brits, just don't have the same attachment. How connected can one possibly feel to great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa Henry who may have been in a war that we only learn about from books?

I have a lot more respect for US History now than I did 12 hours ago and will from now on be grateful that I can ask my parents and grandparents about so many events from our country's past.