I didn’t like “social studies” in school. I didn’t hate it; I just didn’t give history much thought.

Then I met Denise. She introduced me to an American organization that re-enacts the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, for themselves, for fun. That’s when the history bug bit.

My career as a graphic designer took me from agency freelancing to employment to the gig economy and back again.

We’d been doing that for a few years, though I began to see some obstacles to the fun. There are few medieval-ish venues in which to gather; it’s hard to mentally time-travel to a candle-lit feast in a high school gym with plastic chairs and a glowing soda vending machine they won’t let us turn off. With the advent of YouTube, I saw medieval living history done in Europe, in the exact spot that history took place. True re-enactment.

I compare what we do to what the Christopher Reeve character did in the film Somewhere in Time. Driven by love, he time-travels by clearing the room of any modern objects, dresses for the period, closes his eyes and wishes real hard. Not a scientific breakthrough, but a literary trope.

This re-enactment of the American Revolution (an umbrella term in which the War is a part) is not as distant in the timeline as Europe’s past can be, but at least we’re standing “in the room where it happened.” Or the field, or the town square. Surrounded by self-jurying authenticists, all there to help.

I find myself caring more about the trajectory of the country, and our need for a reminder of our origin story, warts and all. I see current events through the filter of history.

And ultimately, we’re having fun. We wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t. They even call it “The Hobby.”