Vocation!

Like many other college students, I am not exactly 100% certain of what I want to do after graduation. I definitely plan to go to grad school, but my idea of what I want to do afterwards changes periodically. When I first decided that I wanted to study history it was because I loved it and wanted to take more classes in the subject area. I had no clue what I’d do with a degree in it, only that a schedule comprised of mostly history classes sounded pretty great. I talked to my advisor and a few other professors and decided I wanted to work towards a career in public history. Lately, however, I have become increasingly more interested in historic preservation. I've realized that I love historic buildings, and that nothing gets me more peeved than the idea of tearing down an old building to put a strip mall or some generic modern store there. Though I do not know for sure what I hope to be doing in 10 years, much less have a solid step by step plan of how to get there, I do have these two ideas of careers I think I would be very happy with and would like to work towards during the rest of my undergraduate studies.

These two ideas sort of come together in England. Castles are probably my favorite type of historic structure (or my favorite thing in general), and, of course, Europe is ideal for castle visits. Many of them, in order to keep them in tip top shape, have been renovated and essentially turned into museums. Guided tours are available, and some, like Stirling Castle in Scotland, even have headphone sets allowing visitors to listen to recorded bits of information at different spots throughout the castle. When I was there, there were even people dressed up for the time period or as people who lived there who would answer questions! Naturally, I plan to visit as many castles as possible while I am there, and see any other interesting museums. I hope to discuss these types of jobs with people there, given the opportunity, asking questions about the nature of the work and what sorts of preparations during ones undergraduate studies would be beneficial. I would also love to look into doing some or all of my Bonner work while I am there at a museum.

Incidentally, many of the classes I plan to take will be relevant to my senior thesis. I am writing about film in the Cold War, and I am excited to take classes that will either be focused on or relatable to WWII. The thing about studying history that is both awesome and frustrating is that even if you narrow down your area of interest down to just one specific event, you can never know everything about it. There is always more to read, and then there’s the fact that all that is written may be, depending on when whatever event you've chosen occurred, all there is. Not everyone wrote memoirs or was “important” enough to have his or her life and experiences detailed, and even those who were probably didn't record everything for any number of reasons. Not that I need to know exactly what President Nixon ate for breakfast on any given day to understand the Cold War, but I consider a thorough understanding of WWII to be very important. Plus, I like learning about it!