Sense of Place-Your Neighbor

         I believe home is where you make it. No matter where, when you are with people you are close to, such as family and friends; it gives you a connection. A connection to a place you feel comfortable, you feel relaxed, you feel in your environment. A home can be whatever you make it; your environment. It does not have to be the house you grew up in, or where your mom and dad live; its what you make it. You create your sense of place. By making your location comfortable, relaxing, and most of all, appealing to you; you give yourself a sense of place. For some it might be mimicking aspects of your childhood home, or a location you remember fondly and have many great memories of. To create a sense of place, you do not necessarily need possessions, or even for that matter an actual home. For some people home can be a town, a city, a nation. For some it can be outdoors, or a combination of where you are and the environment around you. Wherever home is for you, it must not be forgotten home is what you make it. No matter where you are, or by what methods, you can incorporate a sense of place, a feeling of home. It can be anything from the placement of objects or plants, familiar smells and sounds; you make your home what it is, and give yourself a sense of place. It must be understood a sense of place is what you make it, or choose to remember it as.
        As Wendell Berry stated it summed it best: "You cant know who you are are until you know where you are," you really cannot understand your true identity until you understand  where you are, the environment surrounding you, or perhaps even where you come from. All of these senses of place help to give you a true identity about who you really are. So it can be said that without truly knowing your sense of place, the environment around you and how it was before you, and where you come from; you can never really know yourself, and who you really are.
         Everything can give you a sense of place, and help you understand  who you really are and where you came from. Everything, and this must not be forgotten. It can be new or old; man-made or natural; existing or not. This can be complex to really understand, but simplified, take for example dinosaurs. Everybody likes dinosaurs or thinks something about them is "cool" or interesting. Yet, even something like dinosaurs can help give you a sense of place. It is understood that dinosaurs existed in our world before us, human beings. Dinosaurs roamed many of the same lands that we do today, and yet we know they lived completely different lifestyles in some of our same encompassing natural environments; they left their mark in the world, and as we do ours. It also understood by most, some dinosaurs, and other creatures of our natural world that even still exist today are individually more powerful than any human could ever be on their own. Things like this help give us an understanding of our place in the world, where we come from, fit in, and who we really are. However, it must not be forgotten that everything can give you a sense of place, and even a deeper understanding of who you really are, and again where you come from. Interstates, televisions, paintings, power lines, cars, shoes, soda, anything can give you a sense of place, and understanding of yourself.

Exit 128 on Interstate 75 San Carlos Park, my exit and one of Fgcu's exits. courtesy southeastroads.com
       The interstate that runs through my town of San Carlos Park in South Myers, Florida and throughout the country reminds me of the interstate in my childhood home, and gives me a deeper understanding of people, and even my identity. I know that people built these massive arteries of our nations to connect people, goods, technology, food, ideas, and all types of other things all throughout the United States, and even the rest of the world. Even, the planes flying over my house every 5 minutes help to give me a sense of identity and place. It shows me that people have the power to join together and advance, and that even though I might love where I'm at at the time, that I'm tiny in the global spectrum and compared to the Earth, and there is so much more in the world out there. It also helps me understand humanity, and their ideas in the power they can have for change, and responsibility they carry for pretty much controlling the fate of ourselves, and our world. I notice everything off the highway it seems. When I drive up the Interstate 75, to highway 301 in Ocala, to interstate 10 near Macclenny, Florida, to sometimes Interstate 95 in Jacksonville, or to the roads of my childhood home in Jacksonville; I notice all the different changing scenery, elevation, and especially the trees and their respective levels and treeline. Especially going Northbound on the interstate you watch it change from Swamplands, to forest, to higher different type of forest, different types of lowlands, and even back to huge swamps, and grassy plains looking marshes near Gainesville, Florida. This all help to give me my sense of place, and where the people and animals before me came in, and how my people have changed that. It also helps me appreciate though our power to help preserve much of this, and how it is our responsibility with the power to change it for our benefit, to maintain it for the environment for it's benefit which will in turn return us.

The sawmp you see from Intestate 75 South of Gainesville courtesy of cdn.wn.com
      It also helps me understand how small we are, but how we all change the world. Just by riding on an interstate in going one exit 5 minutes away you are like an ant in a global spectrum of goods, people, ideas, technology, and all types of other things going all around the world, and being exchanged for other things all throughout the world. It also makes me never forget that I'm still in the South in the United States, and especially in Florida and whatever other people make it, it is what make it. Its where I call home, where I know my place, where I'd rather be and therefore be more comfortable, relaxed, and at home.
         Even though I cannot see the interstate just from walking around my house on my street at my current house, fortunately;  I still know it is not far and where I'm in in the spectrum of the world, especially with the loud sound of airplanes landing every couple minutes, or the occasional helicopter circling around. Still, as I walk through my neighborhood I see so much more. I see the lands, all the cypress trees, and the little creek that runs between them. I know that before all this; that is what this looked like but completely different because it was undisturbed, like it utilized one of  those signs we all so often desperately put on our hotel doors: "Please do not disturb." Just like us, Earth , these lands and animals did not want to be disturbed. However, we still had to utilize the precious not so wet lands for affordable housing, so it therefore our job as the people that did this, whether we did it directly or not, to try and preserve, or keep in tact some of what the environment was before, especially and because it so greatly benefits us.
         Still, walking through these lands that nature once completely ruled, I still have a strong sense of place from nature. I always hear the birds, especially walking through my neighborhood, even just opening my window. I hear all the birds, sometimes I see the schools of white and brown Ibises that run throughout the yard looking for food. I enjoy seeing this, and I never want this to end.

Picture of birds at nearby Big Cypress Swamp, reminds me of what the small Cypress Creek near my house, and the birds that hang around the neighborhood may have had as their complete enviornment before development of San Carlos Park. courtesy of lonelyplanet.com
         So many different things give me a sense of place. Everything, whether man made or natural can give you a sense of place. For me, different objects and animals give me a perspective of where I'm, what it was like before me, and how people have changed that both for better, and for worse. Just walking through my neighborhood, or riding in a car I get an understanding of where I'm, and familiarize with it and create a sense of home, and place. I also get an understanding of Earth, and my same lands were before me, and how people, even though maybe not me directly, have completely altered that in good, and bad ways. I never forget though that while we must do things for our benefit, and survival; it is necessary to always remember to have some concern, and need for the preservation, and conservation of whats left of my surrounding natural lands, and the wildlife these lands have always encompassed.