I had a passion for medieval history inspired by King Arthur and a glut of fantasy literature I read in my second decade upon this earth, I also loved Greek mythology as a child and did a GCSE (age fifteen/sixteen for non-Brits) in Classical Civilisation. This focused my interest to medieval society (which I had never studied at school) and my own interests took me onto chivalry and the lay elite. As for time period I began as a late medievalist and have become a central-ist in the past year. I made this transition because I believe there is more to say (or more precisely that less has been said already) about chivalry in the thirteenth- as opposed to the fourteenth- and fifteenth-centuries.

Despite all of this I ended up writing my Masters dissertation on homage in Wales, I found something that was fascinating and new and I cantered along that untrodden path. I am now very well versed in medieval Welsh history (c.1090-1284) but it is definitely not a geographical region which fixates my interest. My interest was predominantly focused on the ritual of homage, Wales was a case-study, and I would like to study homage in other regions in part because it was a very important ritual among the lay elite and for peacemaking in the middle ages.

Passion and interest are what will get you through. Even the most interesting subject which deeply fascinates you at a personal level will have some element of slog and grind about it. You will need to find something that genuinely interests you, whether that's clocks, cocks, or chivalry and a period in which to study it. Then feel free to let the literature and primary sources lead you where they will, just make sure you keep meticulous notes so you can find your way back!

I think you should focus more on breadth than depth for a BA. When I got my BA in history I didn't have any sort of focus. Just keep studying different subjects until something grabs you. You don't need a focus until you go to graduate school, if you decide to go for a masters in history.

For me, the specialty came to me through my undergrad classes. In one semester I took both a history of Ancient Rome and a history of the Old South class. The parallels between the two as far as the patron client relationship was concerned absolutely fascinated me, though I later learned that a lot of what I though was wrong (Or had already been written about which was hugely frustrating). I had already known that I wanted to do history, and I simply could not decide where to focus my work. My decision wasn't really a huge dramatic choice, since historians ought to be generalists to some degree, but I knew that if I was going to continue my education I had to make a choice about a specialty. Southern history seemed to be the better choice for me, since the sources were closer and I didn't really want to learn Latin. Plus, I grew up in the south, and seeing the pieces of Southern culture that still existed today continues to fascinate me. The thing to remember, to me, is that even though you will pick a specialty, that doesn't mean that's all you can learn about. I make a point to read at least a few books outside of my field every year so that I can keep up with what's happening.