I was thinking the other day about my interests as a history major, and I came to a realization. Where once I looked on American History as depressing and not worth my time, I have become an Americanist. I used to see the hypocrisies in the rhetoric of antebellum politicians, see Manifest Destiny, see general intolerance and I'd get pissed off and read something else. Reading European history and seeing forced movements of people, i.e. the Jews being expelled from Spain in 1492, or rampant genocide or hideously and infuriatingly depressing things and I wouldn't bat an eye. It wasn't until recently that I realized the reason that American history got me riled up is simply because I'm a bloody American. I care about American history, because it shapes who we are as a nation and how we are perceived as well.
I'm not articulating this particularly well, but where I used to get upset and quit, I find the ideas that led to atrocities like Manifest Destiny and explore them. Where Europeans settled with their cultures, new cultures formed from fusions with native peoples and other European nations forming a distinctive set of American cultures from New England to Oaxaca. Yeah, I like Mexico too. But anyhoo, it's nice to have a focus that you like in the subject.