I feel that the past month has been in overdrive and that I have had no time to write about my experiences and thoughts on life, love and the pursuit of happiness.  These next few posts are going to be my attempt at catch up.

One of my Chicago Facebook friends posted a couple of You Tube versions of the song City of New Orleans on New Years Day. Living in N’awlins, my interest was sparked. It turned out that this friend was coming in for the January 3rd-6th American Historical Association’s Annual Conference (http://www.historians.org/annual/2013/index.cfm) via train and I was intrigued enough that I checked out the conference schedule. I had been feeling blue about being back in NOLA and trepidation about returning to my work reality on January 2nd, but suddenly I had a plan brewing that excited me. I was going to spend my birthday weekend at a conference–one that wasn’t centered around standards or assessments or teaching objectives, but was instead way sexier to me: a conference about the latest thinking in the field of history.

I haven’t had time to really process the sessions I attended or follow-up on some of the resources I was introduced to.  However, the conference was everything I hoped it would be. I went to such sessions as: Trash & Treasure: The Significance of Used Goods in America, 1880-1950; Women’s Media as Women’s History; From the March on Washington to Tahrir Square and Beyond: Tactics, Technology, and Social Movements; The Colonial Period and the Redesigned AP US History Course; Teaching Immigration and Migration; Reimagining the Doctor, Redefining the Patient: Women, Gender, and Medical Authority in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; Shapeshifting as History: Crosscurrents of People, Nature and Gender in Latin America and the Caribbean; “Peopling” US History: Migrations and Demographics in the Revised Advanced Placement United States History Course; and Beyond Bordellos: Race, Sex, and Jazz in Turn-of-the-Century New Orleans.

This conference made me realize just how much my perspective has changed in the past year or two and how the lens that I look through history with has changed dramatically. The session Reimagining the Doctor, Redefining the Patient: Women, Gender, and Medical Authority in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era was especially meaningful. Comparing and contrasting my yearlong initiation into the world of breast cancer care with the the medical care of women 100 years ago was full of ‘ah-ha’ moments. I’m especially excited about being introduced to the session presenters’ blog and Facebook page Nursing Clio (http://nursingclio.org/)–Because the Personal is Historical.

I expect the ah-ha moments will continue.