Back To Where I Started From: Passion, Education, The Gold Rush

Early in my grad school career, I mentioned to a fellow researcher that I had no idea why I was studying religion when I had set out to study immigration, except that this new subject was where the documents had led me. "It will be personal," she said. "It's always personal." I agreed that she must be right, but it took me a while to figure out why.

Of course we learn most avidly when we can connect what we learn about the past to our own lives today. But the connections aren't always obvious.

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