I heart the West.

Sometimes I get sad that there aren't any history classes in my program on the American West. I mean, I guess it's understandable, what with the West being way over there and us being way over here on the East Coast, but still. Anyhow, I have managed to become known among some of our professors as that one student interested in the West (and unfortunately that sometimes gets confused with a student who is actually really knowledgeable about the West, which I'm not, but I guess it's all relative).

I haven't always loved the West. I'm from the Southwest, but while I have a fierce New Mexican pride I was also sure eager to get the heck out of there for college. I loved the Pacific Northwest, but even there when it came to history I always wanted to look east. In my senior thesis seminar my professor asked us to write a research paper on anything we wanted...in the West. I was not a happy camper, so I compromised by writing about easterners traveling west. And that's when I sort of got hooked. Now I'm obsessed with the Oregon Trail and I have pictures of buffalo hanging in my apartment.

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you that I just received an email from one of my professors with a YouTube clip that was sent to him by his old advisor, who happens to be a big deal in both western and environmental history. I haven't even seen the clip yet (dial-up internet and video clips don't go together very well...) but I'm excited that he thought of me. You know, as that one student obsessed with the West.