Several years ago, I moved from my native state of Tennessee to New Mexico to attend graduate school at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in order to follow my dream of becoming a historian specializing in the United States.

Since I was going to concentrate my studies on the subfield of the American West, I thought that it made sense to live in that part of the country.

The history department at NMSU awarded me a graduate assistantship, which meant that I would run a few errands, grade some exams, and occasionally lecture for an absent professor.

As I mentioned last week, I needed to become a...