I love history. It was my favorite subject in school. It’s my favorite category on Jeopardy. I usually do pretty well when anything history-related is a Trivial Pursuit question.

I also love journalism. It was my major in college, and if it weren’t for the soul-crushing pace of a reporter’s life, I think I would have excelled in the profession. Even though I didn’t make journalism my career, does not mean I wasted my time in college. I learned how to ask questions, think critically, and never bury the lead. I believe good skills to have in general, really.

The beautiful nexus of where history and journalism converge is that reporting (when at its best and most objective) becomes a record of history. There is a quote I love by the late Philip Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post, who said, “Journalism is the first rough draft of history.”