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The Historian Past to Present

Tristan | future historian

History, being one of the few school subjects that truly interests me, drives me to want to become a historian. A historian is a person who writes and studies about the past. Historians put together the timeline of the human race with only the clues the past gives us. Frequently, a historian is needed for movies or TV shows to make sure whatever they are creating is historically correct and some make documentaries to tell the public about a certain time. Most historians have a specialty in a certain era that they focus on. They meet up with other historians that specialize in different eras and put their ideas together. Historians also study documents written in the past to support whatever they claim is historically correct. Other than research of a specific time, they also specialize in a particular place geographically or during a certain event such as The Civil War or The Great Depression.

Some professions available to a historian are being a professor at a collage, university or high school. Other opportunities include being a curator at a museum, archivists, and working with film production companies or historical sites. Education requirements usually start with a bachelor's degree but can go all the way up to a PhD. Annual salary for professors are in the $50,000 to $90,000 range. Qualities for this job include being curious, patient, detail-oriented, and having good writing skills. Work days vary based on the type of historian you are. Professors usually work long hours while curators and teachers work regular hours. At school, one of my classes was to help explore careers and I visited a website called Career Cruising which gave me all of my information. Learning about the world's history is important and I want to teach the world about itself.

Tristan's essay appears here as written, to preserve the young author’s unique voice and individual writing style. However, we have deleted personally identifiable information to protect the student’s privacy.