Why genealogy?

I listen to a few genealogy podcasts. One of them, and I think it's the Genealogy Guys, asks people their genealogy story--how and why they are genealogists. I thought I'd take time now to (briefly) share my genealogy story.

My sophomore year in high school my psychology teacher, who was an avid genealogist, came to me to talk about starting a genealogy club. Gene-what? I had no idea what it was, but she explained it to me as learning the history of my family. Coincidentally, I had attended a family reunion that past summer and was really interested in learning more about my family. My paternal grandmother's family, the McCants of Dorchester County, SC, had fleshed out a large tree with names, but no stories. I remember thinking, "What were these people like? What did they do? How did they live?"

Long story short, I was hooked after my first visit to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. (little did I know how lucky I was to live so close to the Archives). I felt like a detective searching for clues! Most importantly, every time I learned something about my family, I felt like I was learning something about myself.

I still love the mental aspect of genealogy. I love the analyzing and piecing together of clues. Genealogy is the only hobby that combines my love of logic puzzles and the analytics of my career (engineering).

Anyway, just wanted to share!