This year, the United States will celebrate its 250th birthday.

Two hundred and fifty years.

That sounds like a long time.

We take pride in it.

We celebrate it.

We point to it as something that defines us.

And then you spend time in Central Europe…

And it changes your perspective.

Because over there…

history is everywhere.

You don’t have to go looking for it.

You see it.

You walk past it.

You ride by it on a tram without even thinking about it.

It’s just… there.

Recently, I was visiting a friend in Connecticut, and he proudly showed me his home.

Built in 1754.

And it is impressive.

But then, not long after that…

I found myself standing in front of a house in Austria that was many, many hundreds of years old.

Not preserved.

Not a museum.

A house.

Someone lived there.

And suddenly, 250 years doesn’t feel quite the same.

It doesn’t diminish what we have.

But it puts it in a different context.

And then there’s something even more important.

It’s not just how far back history goes.

It’s what people have lived through.

Take Hungary.

Over the centuries, it has been ruled, occupied, and shaped by others.

The Ottoman Empire.

The Habsburgs.

The Nazis.

The Soviet Union.

Different eras.

Different forces.

But a common thread.

Long stretches of time when people were not fully in control of their own country.

When you spend time in a place like that, you can’t help but think about what that does to a people.

What it does to their understanding of freedom.

Of independence.

Of self-determination.

It has to be different.

It has to carry more weight.

In the United States, we talk about freedom.

In places like Hungary…

people have experienced what it means not to have it.

And that stays with you.

It certainly stayed with me.

It made me realize just how fortunate we are.

Not perfect.

Not without challenges.

But fortunate.

Because what we have—our continuity, our stability, our ability to govern ourselves—

is not something to take for granted.

History shows that very clearly.

And maybe that’s the biggest takeaway from this trip.

Not just the places.

Not just the experiences.

But the perspective.

A better appreciation for what we have.

And a deeper understanding that it is not guaranteed.