When I was in middle school the History channel aired a "When in Rome week" where all day for a week they had nothing but documentaries about Rome. I rushed home after school and glued myself to the TV. Because of that week I have a love for history, particularly in Rome and Byzanium. And now the channel that made me fall in love with history is now about pawn shops and aliens.....

My high school history teacher was a fantastic teacher and she loved history and that showed in every class, I wanted to be a history teacher like her. I should say that I come from a family of teachers and they all said "don't do it!" (I did it, but can't find a job) But I took history in university mainly because I didn't know what else to take....other than computer science. But I had always wanted to be a palaeontologist and when I was 18 I didn't want to move to Alberta, so I figured, yea I'll do that history teacher thing. So I took some history and classic courses. I loved classics but at the time my university did. It offer a major in classical studies, so I took cross-over courses and went for a history major. Turns out my university has a bit of a power house history department (it's Nipissing, in Ontario if you are interested or whatever) and I absolutely fell in love with genocide studies - perpetration in particular. There's just so many different ways to attack history and research it, it's fun to try out different ways. So what made me fall in love with history? I'm not completely sure, but it is very useful in trivia. And in knowing why some things are the way they are and how they came to be.

This subreddit! (At least, as far as my interest in social and environmental history goes).

As a child I was absolutely fascinated by Ancient Egypt and China. I never knew too much about them because I was so young, but the foundation was laid. Now my interests are far more in line with Rome and Europe in general, but that groundwork that was laid in my early years led me to always read about history and I would actually get in trouble with my mother because I would keep my textbooks that I got from my history classes.