system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Does it matter that the solar system is in the Milky Way?

If the sun were a rogue star, not living inside a galaxy but just residing by itself in intergalactic space, would the solar system operate any differently? Would life on Earth still be possible? In other words, do we derive any benefit because we are part of the Milky Way?
gpt
The Sun formed from a collapsing cloud in the Milky Way.  The metals that make up our Earth and bodies were synthesized inside stars that lived before our Sun.  In that respect, we need the environment for metal production to have been possible, and possibly to trigger the collapse of the cloud that birthed our sun.

In some cases, such as interactions of two binary systems, stars can be thrown out of the Milky Way.  During interactions with other galaxies and dwarf galaxies, streams of stars can be torn away from the host galaxy.  Also, globular clusters live in relative isolation with respect to the Milky Way.  Many of the stars in these situations will have planets.  

To answer your question directly,  after being made in the first place, we do not derive any benefit from the other stars in our galaxy.  It is very conceivable to live on a planet isolated or in a small cluster in intergalactic space.  

However there is debate as to where the seeds of life came from.  Possibly from other systems or maybe interacting stars forced a comet to crash into Earth.  These are all just ideas though, and not supported by fact (yet).