Aaron Carter
ENG 151
Mudd
March 17th, 2011
Foooooooooooood.
It’s a big part of our culture, it’s essential to our lives, it’s continuously pitched to us every day in different ways trying to pull us in, and it’s tasty. It’s food. Food for me has never really been an “issue”. I have always been under the impression that it was something simple that people didn’t mess with: a “straightforward” business. People get hungry, so people buy and eat food from the grocery store and that’s all there is too it. Today food is way simpler than it ever has been before. There are stores to buy anything you need at, fast food drive through everywhere, and if you really don’t want to go to the store, or even get in your car to go to fast food, then there is delivery. Overtime my relationship with food has changed, my understanding of why I need different foods, and why I don’t need others has greatly changed as well as my understanding of the big picture of what’s going on with food.
When I was a kid food was what I was all about. That and playing around outside and just being a crazy and energetic kid. Anytime I ever got money, it was straight to the gas station to buy some junk food. As a kid that’s all food was about, was finding whatever tasted the best (often the sweetest as well). There was no concern about what I was actually consuming, or even the awareness that what I ate mattered. I would over-indulge on junk food and anything sweet I could get my hands on. This kind of handling of food continued until I was probably about fourteen or fifteen. Then I started to calm down on my never ending desire to eat tasty sweets. I started to understand that what I ate was actually important to how I felt in the morning (and the rest of the day), my moods, my skin, and just my health in general. This came from the health classes I had to take in seventh and eighth grade. But as a high school student food was always about ease. I was lazy; I didn’t want to cook anything. I was always eating fast food with the money from my job, and when I was at home if my parents didn’t cook a meal then I was probably eating something out of the microwave. It tasted better and was way easier. Then I came to college.
When I got to college I was still that lazy eater. I would eat microwave food over cooking a meal and be happy about it. When the quarter started it was great. I had the ability to eat some cooked food at dining halls and if that didn’t appeal to me than I could just microwave whatever I wanted that I had bought at the market. It was sweet; I was eating pizza all the time, mac n cheese, nuggets and all that good stuff. But then about half way through the quarter it just really started to get old, and I really started missing having the ability to cook my own food on a stove or oven rather than eat whatever “quick food” the market sold. This really brought me an appreciation for quality food, and this quarter I stopped eating as terribly as I did with my first quarter of grocery freedom. Then came the food week of our class this quarter. That brought me to where I stand with food today.
Today food is now something I am really disappointed with. The fact that quantity of money really rules over the quality of the food that we are feeding ourselves. After food week I have started making smarter choices with what I buy, and after I move from having to buy all my stuff from a university ran market I think I will be eating organic and buying from farmers markets. Food now to me is still what fuels me, it’s still tasty but now there is a bitter resent in the back of my mind for all of these big food companies (especially meat) that are sacrificing quality and health to make that extra dollar. In the big picture of everything I think that we are all being duped into buying not very good quality goods, and when we do buy quality goods we are overpriced. I personally am going to start paying attention to what companies I buy my food from, and what kinds of foods I’m eating. I’ve never made healthy choices before buy I have started to and I will continue to. From now and on, I am going to but my mouth and money where my mouth is, and that is quality food’s from smaller more needy places. Sorry Wal-Mart/Kroger/Meijer, but in my mind big business is an old trick that I’ve picked up on. I don’t like it, and I’m not going to pay for it.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Aaron Carter
ENG 151
Mudd
March 17, 2011
Sustainablili-me
Meaning. That’s what this is all about for me, the pursuit of a meaningful existence. I think it goes without saying that our generation has the ability to be the most influential generation yet. The existence of the future is really up to us more than it has been for any previous generations. That for me is the meaningful existence I believe I am a part of. This pursuit of future comfort isn’t specific to just the US but really to any major country (technology wise). With all of the current and sure to come innovations in technology our generation has much more ability to influence the future of our world than anyone before us. That’s where sustainability comes in to all of this. It is my belief that it is up to us to implement sustainable practices or leave our future to suffer the consequences.
Our generation is really the luckiest and most privileged generation yet. We’ve come up with the modern rise of technology which as I see it, is the both the problem and the solution. We now have the ability to end our own existence with weapons, communicate with anyone anywhere, travel with ease, consume with ease and pretty much do anything we need to with much less effort that ever before. This is what’s causing our demise. We have become lost in the WHAT we are doing because it’s so easy and we’ve forgotten WHY we are doing it. We have forgotten that we need to think about how it’s impacting both our current state and our future. We go to the supermarket and buy all of our groceries because it’s easy, we remember what we’re there to get but we don’t think about why we’re at that particular store. Are they promoting what you like? Such as healthy foods, good wages for workers, good use of the revenue they generate. We know WHAT we want from our jobs but do most of us think about “why” we are doing them? That’s how it is with almost everything now a days, there are too many “what” I want, what I need, what I can use, what I can do, what the TV. says but there is a seriously lack of why and if you replace a “what” with a “why” you get a whole different picture. Sustainability is about “why” for me, and that is starting to spread to others with sustainable movements. Recently a “go green” movement has come to light, and I believe it’s our generations call to action. That’s not to say that we all have to “go green” but it is to say that this is the “kicker” that needs to be and will hopefully be that opens our eyes to the fact that if we don’t start using what we have in a sustainable manner, than everything we have achieved will hold no meaning, it will cease to exist. That’s what it’s all about for me and that’s what it needs to be about for you, your family, your school, your country. Whoever you are. We need to stop pushing twice as hard because we have twice the muscle, and start thinking about why and where we are pushing and how much to push. It is my opinion that we need to learn “how hard to push” (how much to use) if we are really trying to make a future for ourselves and our children and their children etc. That’s what sustainability has become to me, learning how to use what you have. Not learning how to exploit what we have.
When I first came to this class my idea of sustainability was entirely different. I thought of it as a much simpler thing. Like turning the sink off when I brush my teeth, or driving a more fuel efficient car, or grabbing less food at the dining hall. It was all about ways to just “use less”. Now I have what I believe to be a better understanding of the issue of sustainability. Now I see sustainability as more than “using less”. Now I see it as a more complicated process, you don’t start with “use less” it starts with why am I using this? Do I need to? What else could I use? And so on. This class has brought me from awareness of the fact that we need to do this, to the state of feeling that I HAVE to do this.
Today in our culture sustainability must become a top priority so that our culture can continue to exist. Sustainability is a “why” issue not a “what” issue to me now. I knew what it was, but now I know why it is, and why it needs to be continuously built upon and implemented into our everyday living. I now feel that I should live sustainably not do sustainable things every once in a while, and that is where we all need to be. That is what this is all about to me now; it’s the “meaning” I talked about. To make everyone else know WHY sustain, not just WHAT sustaining means. I believe if we do this people won’t need to be forced or lobbied or convinced that they need to be more sustainable, they will want to do it on their own. Self-sustaining sustainability.
ENG 151
Mudd
March 17, 2011
Sustainablili-me
Meaning. That’s what this is all about for me, the pursuit of a meaningful existence. I think it goes without saying that our generation has the ability to be the most influential generation yet. The existence of the future is really up to us more than it has been for any previous generations. That for me is the meaningful existence I believe I am a part of. This pursuit of future comfort isn’t specific to just the US but really to any major country (technology wise). With all of the current and sure to come innovations in technology our generation has much more ability to influence the future of our world than anyone before us. That’s where sustainability comes in to all of this. It is my belief that it is up to us to implement sustainable practices or leave our future to suffer the consequences.
Our generation is really the luckiest and most privileged generation yet. We’ve come up with the modern rise of technology which as I see it, is the both the problem and the solution. We now have the ability to end our own existence with weapons, communicate with anyone anywhere, travel with ease, consume with ease and pretty much do anything we need to with much less effort that ever before. This is what’s causing our demise. We have become lost in the WHAT we are doing because it’s so easy and we’ve forgotten WHY we are doing it. We have forgotten that we need to think about how it’s impacting both our current state and our future. We go to the supermarket and buy all of our groceries because it’s easy, we remember what we’re there to get but we don’t think about why we’re at that particular store. Are they promoting what you like? Such as healthy foods, good wages for workers, good use of the revenue they generate. We know WHAT we want from our jobs but do most of us think about “why” we are doing them? That’s how it is with almost everything now a days, there are too many “what” I want, what I need, what I can use, what I can do, what the TV. says but there is a seriously lack of why and if you replace a “what” with a “why” you get a whole different picture. Sustainability is about “why” for me, and that is starting to spread to others with sustainable movements. Recently a “go green” movement has come to light, and I believe it’s our generations call to action. That’s not to say that we all have to “go green” but it is to say that this is the “kicker” that needs to be and will hopefully be that opens our eyes to the fact that if we don’t start using what we have in a sustainable manner, than everything we have achieved will hold no meaning, it will cease to exist. That’s what it’s all about for me and that’s what it needs to be about for you, your family, your school, your country. Whoever you are. We need to stop pushing twice as hard because we have twice the muscle, and start thinking about why and where we are pushing and how much to push. It is my opinion that we need to learn “how hard to push” (how much to use) if we are really trying to make a future for ourselves and our children and their children etc. That’s what sustainability has become to me, learning how to use what you have. Not learning how to exploit what we have.
When I first came to this class my idea of sustainability was entirely different. I thought of it as a much simpler thing. Like turning the sink off when I brush my teeth, or driving a more fuel efficient car, or grabbing less food at the dining hall. It was all about ways to just “use less”. Now I have what I believe to be a better understanding of the issue of sustainability. Now I see sustainability as more than “using less”. Now I see it as a more complicated process, you don’t start with “use less” it starts with why am I using this? Do I need to? What else could I use? And so on. This class has brought me from awareness of the fact that we need to do this, to the state of feeling that I HAVE to do this.
Today in our culture sustainability must become a top priority so that our culture can continue to exist. Sustainability is a “why” issue not a “what” issue to me now. I knew what it was, but now I know why it is, and why it needs to be continuously built upon and implemented into our everyday living. I now feel that I should live sustainably not do sustainable things every once in a while, and that is where we all need to be. That is what this is all about to me now; it’s the “meaning” I talked about. To make everyone else know WHY sustain, not just WHAT sustaining means. I believe if we do this people won’t need to be forced or lobbied or convinced that they need to be more sustainable, they will want to do it on their own. Self-sustaining sustainability.
Eco Event #7 ooo wind
I found this article on a site called:
This site is pretty sweet when it comes to "eco" events, news, developments, and ideas. So you might want to check it out.
The article or "press release" is titled "GE UNIT, UNIONBANCAL UNIT, BUY CALIFORNIA WIND FARM FIRST PHASE OF ONE OF LARGEST US WIND ENERGY PROJECTS STARTING OPERATIONS" which pretty much sum's up what the whole thing is about.
Basically GE decided to buy the first wind farm that it needs to begin a wind energy project. This project is planned to be a 3,000-megawatt project. When complete it will provide electricity for 1.4 California homes. This article was very interesting to me because it not only demonstrates our steps towards furthering our dependance on alternative energy but it also demonstrated a company's good faith in allowing for the sale of the company to allow the company (Terra-Gen) to continue to operate itself and aid in the generation of $6 billion for renewable energy invesments. I hope that GE continues on this path of its "commitment to ecoimagination".
This site is pretty sweet when it comes to "eco" events, news, developments, and ideas. So you might want to check it out.
The article or "press release" is titled "GE UNIT, UNIONBANCAL UNIT, BUY CALIFORNIA WIND FARM FIRST PHASE OF ONE OF LARGEST US WIND ENERGY PROJECTS STARTING OPERATIONS" which pretty much sum's up what the whole thing is about.
Basically GE decided to buy the first wind farm that it needs to begin a wind energy project. This project is planned to be a 3,000-megawatt project. When complete it will provide electricity for 1.4 California homes. This article was very interesting to me because it not only demonstrates our steps towards furthering our dependance on alternative energy but it also demonstrated a company's good faith in allowing for the sale of the company to allow the company (Terra-Gen) to continue to operate itself and aid in the generation of $6 billion for renewable energy invesments. I hope that GE continues on this path of its "commitment to ecoimagination".
Eco event #6 Little Japan, Big Trouble pt. 2
For the first part of my Japan posts I focused mainly on the actual Tsunami and the damage to the city. For the 2nd part I am going to focus soley on the nuclear problems coming from this happening.
Fukushima Dai-Ichi is an nuclear plant that has been severely affected by the tsunami that struck on March 11th. The tsunami has caused severe damage to 4 of the 6 nuclear reactors that Fukushima houses and today (march 17th) workers are trying everything they can to cool one of the dangerously overheated reactors. The tsunami has damaged the reactors so that the rod's in the reactors aren't staying cool causing the reactors to overheat and if they continue to do so it could result in a "complete meltdown" which would release dangerous amounts of radiation into sourounding areas. The article says that right now the dangeous levels are only on-site at the plant.
But.... What will be the long term affects of this radiation? What about short term? On the top of this article where i read about all of this "Physicist Michio Kaku tells msnbc's Richard Liu that cooling attempts like using helicopter drops to cool down the 700 tons of spent fuel at Japan's Fukushima reactor site won't be enough, that they would be better served with a 'Chernobyl' approach"
What's going to happen? I think the radiation might just cause zombies to come. What about you?
Fukushima Dai-Ichi is an nuclear plant that has been severely affected by the tsunami that struck on March 11th. The tsunami has caused severe damage to 4 of the 6 nuclear reactors that Fukushima houses and today (march 17th) workers are trying everything they can to cool one of the dangerously overheated reactors. The tsunami has damaged the reactors so that the rod's in the reactors aren't staying cool causing the reactors to overheat and if they continue to do so it could result in a "complete meltdown" which would release dangerous amounts of radiation into sourounding areas. The article says that right now the dangeous levels are only on-site at the plant.
But.... What will be the long term affects of this radiation? What about short term? On the top of this article where i read about all of this "Physicist Michio Kaku tells msnbc's Richard Liu that cooling attempts like using helicopter drops to cool down the 700 tons of spent fuel at Japan's Fukushima reactor site won't be enough, that they would be better served with a 'Chernobyl' approach"
What's going to happen? I think the radiation might just cause zombies to come. What about you?
Eco Event #5 Big Trouble, Little Japan pt. 1
So i felt it necessary to split up whats going on in japan into two seperate posts because there are two very diffrent (but related) things that are happening/happened in Japan recently.
First off the Tsunami/Earthquake. Im sure we've all heard what happened, but just incase you live under a rock ~here~ is an article describing what took place on March 11th.
The Tsunami that struck Japan was caused by an 8.9/10 magnatude earthquake
(thats real bad) this is the 5th largest earthquake since 1900 and the largest in Japan for over 140 years. The city of Sendai was hit by two main tsunami waves, the first about 20ft high and the 2nd about 33ft high. The quake and tsunami have completely ravaged the cities it hit with flooding and physical damage. The death toll now is over 5,000 and there really isnt much hope for the affected places due to a new developing problem with the damage caused to the nuclear industries in the affected area.
The fact that this extremely modern and developed place has been hit by this tsunami is a big deal, alot of people will be out of work and the long term affects of this event are still unfolding. Will Tokyo return to its orginial splendor? How long will it take? What do you think?
First off the Tsunami/Earthquake. Im sure we've all heard what happened, but just incase you live under a rock ~here~ is an article describing what took place on March 11th.
The Tsunami that struck Japan was caused by an 8.9/10 magnatude earthquake
(thats real bad) this is the 5th largest earthquake since 1900 and the largest in Japan for over 140 years. The city of Sendai was hit by two main tsunami waves, the first about 20ft high and the 2nd about 33ft high. The quake and tsunami have completely ravaged the cities it hit with flooding and physical damage. The death toll now is over 5,000 and there really isnt much hope for the affected places due to a new developing problem with the damage caused to the nuclear industries in the affected area.
The fact that this extremely modern and developed place has been hit by this tsunami is a big deal, alot of people will be out of work and the long term affects of this event are still unfolding. Will Tokyo return to its orginial splendor? How long will it take? What do you think?
Eco Event #4 Efficiency = More consumption?
I just read this article and it's somthing that I think is a great point that I have considered before and that i think should be more widley talked about. The article is basically proposing that becoming more efficient may just make us consume more. In the article the writer of the article bases this on the coal and computer industries.What I have thought all along and what this writer is saying is that in order for efficiency to work, we cant drive twice as much because now our car uses half the fuel, if we want efficiency to work we need to learn to control ourselves and do what we need to do, not everything we want to. This doesnt mean stay home! Dont go out! SAVEEEEEE. But it does mean that we need to stop being wasteful and start being EFFICIENT.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
eco event #3 More dead animals?!?
MSN.com is my homepage, and today when i opened up the browser i saw a headline that said "Millions of dead Fish" and i was shocked, because this is now the 2nd time in like 2 or 3 months that a large group of animals has turned up dead and both events took place in the US.
HERE is a link to the article.
The article says that the scientists "tentatively" said that they all died of oxygen depravation. They said they must have all just swam into a pocket where there was no air and died. Is that even possible? couldnt they just swim back to where they could catch a breath? Can there even be just a patch of water off the coast of LA lacking oxygen? I think its very peculiar that twice now in a very short period of time TWO "rare but possible" large deaths of animals have occured with little to no explanation. Im not really sure what to make of it, and i really hope it doesnt continue. This is definetely not "natural selection" as the article suggests.
HERE is a link to the article.
The article says that the scientists "tentatively" said that they all died of oxygen depravation. They said they must have all just swam into a pocket where there was no air and died. Is that even possible? couldnt they just swim back to where they could catch a breath? Can there even be just a patch of water off the coast of LA lacking oxygen? I think its very peculiar that twice now in a very short period of time TWO "rare but possible" large deaths of animals have occured with little to no explanation. Im not really sure what to make of it, and i really hope it doesnt continue. This is definetely not "natural selection" as the article suggests.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
eco event #2
i found this video using stumble, i think you'll like it
http://www.activeion.com/HowItWorks.aspx
i thought this was very interesting, the idea that water with charge could be used as an alternative to cleaner is groundbreaking. Not only will that reshape the cleaning industry but i think it would help us alot, it would eliminate the need for all of these man made cleaners. This is much more sustainable that what we're doing now, and this is a totally natural way to do somthing we go through alot of trouble to achieve now a days.
what do you think?
http://www.activeion.com/HowItWorks.aspx
i thought this was very interesting, the idea that water with charge could be used as an alternative to cleaner is groundbreaking. Not only will that reshape the cleaning industry but i think it would help us alot, it would eliminate the need for all of these man made cleaners. This is much more sustainable that what we're doing now, and this is a totally natural way to do somthing we go through alot of trouble to achieve now a days.
what do you think?
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Eco Event #1 First Signs?
FIRST SIGNS OF APOCOLYPSE????
A few weeks ago a friend told me about this event. In Arkansas, New Years day thousands or birds and fish in Arkansas died. No one knows how, or why... It just happened. Crazy! I read about it HERE. I decided to post this up for all of you because i think its crazy, and i want to know how and or why all these animals died all the sudden. Is the world starting to come to an end? You check it out and decide.
A few weeks ago a friend told me about this event. In Arkansas, New Years day thousands or birds and fish in Arkansas died. No one knows how, or why... It just happened. Crazy! I read about it HERE. I decided to post this up for all of you because i think its crazy, and i want to know how and or why all these animals died all the sudden. Is the world starting to come to an end? You check it out and decide.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Campus History Projecy
Aaron Carter
Mudd
ENG 151
11/17/2011
Campus History in a Big Way.
Ohio University. I have only been here for one quarter, and in that time I have explored campus, asked questions and gotten answers. However, I had not figured out what was going on with the space in between Grover and Peden. Living on West Green here at OU, I would cross over the patch of green on the way to the football games. The earthwork installation in itself doesn’t give you any clue what it is, or the meaning behind it, so I wanted to find out. I feel like a lot of people here don’t know about it because on the way to the games when I would ask the group of kids I was with, no one knew. After looking into it I found out the piece was called “input”. Input was the whole reason I came to this topic at all, but it was unfortunately a fairly new addition to the campus. This made the history part of this piece a little difficult so…..I decided to do my piece on the history of the entire space known as “Bicentennial Park”, and to do so in a manner that appealed to my readers, but without jamming too much information into it.
Effective. That’s really what the goal is right? To be effective, but what is effective? I think “effective” when dealing with historical information is easily done. Well presented, informative information, as well as lots of big (also representative) pictures, all organized in an easily legible way. There are many ways to do this, but the way that most appealed to me, was the brochure. It is neat, organized, and I took some information technology classes in high school that (I think) helped me to be able to make an “effective” brochure. The Brochure is a good way to organize information in an appealing and effective manner. But it is also something that can go VERY WRONG if the wrong person is making it, or the wrong audience is reading it. My audience is OU students really, and students are so constantly bombarded with information that they aren’t going to read a brochure if its jam packed full of information, with no way to “navigate” the text and no pictures. So I chose to create this promo piece on Photoshop, with Photoshop I have the ability to focus more on the visual aspect than I can with other programs, and still get all the information in.
To be effective with this brochure, I had to really narrow down all the information. I don’t have a lot of room to work with in a brochure if I want appealing pictures and not so much information that the reader doesn’t want to get past the first paragraph. So, the first page is a big, picture with lots of color and some text as a label. The cover is however mostly covered by a picture of Bicentennial, hopefully to pull the reader in because it’s a park here at OU and my readers like parks. Throughout the entire brochure I used large, contrasting color headlines so that If someone opened the brochure with the intent of finding a certain piece of information they might actually try to find it because they can make an educated guess on where in the brochure it might be, rather than having to can the entire 5 pages of all txt. The txt I have isn’t too small, it’s easy to read, and not too much is on each page. When I go to read a brochure, I’m more willing to start reading if I see a few paragraphs of information rather than an entire column of text. The pictures all are big and clear and representative of the text they are near, and they all blend with the background giving it a visual appeal. Overall, this piece is “easy on the eyes”, and has reasonably lengthen, well organized information. And should be fairly appealing to the reader at a first glance,
If that first glance is effective as I hope, then I believe the content I chose would have satisfied the reader. When I first started brainstorming and researching for this project, I was only looking up information on “Input”, the piece of earthwork in the park. After finding out it was newly installed in the campus I had to expand on that to suit my audiences craving for history, as well as the current information. I chose to include a “Where” section so that if the reader hasn’t yet seen the piece they can find out where it is on campus to “check it out”. A “When” section to give the reader some kind of time frame or time line in which this topic is contained. Trautwein was the first campus Occupant of that space so it’s obviously a must for this piece. I however chose to leave out the history behind Trautwein’s name and anything about “baseball” so I did not clutter up the page with information that had nothing to do with the park. I had to include “Input” in the brochure even though it’s not part of the history because it was my original reason for coming to this topic. If it were not for “Input” then I would not be doing this. I also chose the presidential sidewalk on the side of the park because it is history. All of the president’s names are inscribed chronologically in the stone. If the cover of the brochure pulled my reader into the content, then the content itself along with the organization of the content kept them should keep them hooked for the whole piece.
To truly appeal to readers, the information and piece in its entirety must appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos. I tried to appeal to the readers’ ethos with the last paragraph of the piece. It says sarcastically “Now days, all the space is good for is looking neat, and a spot for people to lay around. What a great use of all that money”. I hope these appeals to my reader’s values and morals because I value recreational green space and economic efficiency, and it doesn’t seem to me a big useless artwork is a good way to use the space. I appealed to pathos with the front cover. The front cover is a picture of Bicentennial Park, and I feel like most of the students here really like this campus and seeing it in this light brings about a positive emotion. But beyond the values and emotion I really appealed to logic as well, with well labeled and easily readable titles and factual information my reader should feel or know that this is a well done piece. This piece appeals to the emotion, values, and logic of any of the readers I am trying to please.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Home?
Place, to me is a sense of belonging. Wherever i am "living" at any given time. I came to OU and Athens from a "place" called West Chester. A ritzy town full of spoiled, unthankful rich kids, and really awful cops. When i was in West Chester, i didnt have a sense of "place" really like i do now. When i came to OU, i found a sense of place like i had not before, and then again when i went back home i found place there too, to an extent that i had lost my excitment of coming back to school.
When i came to OU i was excited to get here, the freedom, the people, the partys, the school. In West Chester, my "place" was.... restricted, not free, i couldnt make my "place" in this world my own. Too many restrictions, things were too spaced out to really get the sense of place that i achieved when i got to OU. When i got here, from the first weekend... it was fantastic. All of the people were chill, the partys were good, and there was just such a chill vibe to the whole thing. I felt like i had a real home, by that i mean the sense of community you get when you know you can depend on people and they depend on you, and there is no negativity about it all. After the first quarter here i started calling OU home. It felt like home. That is what place is to me. Its somewhere we belong, where we feel we can be ourselves, and make ourselves from scratch. We're "writing our own book" so to speak instead of reading the directions out of our parents "books". When i had to leave OU in the fall, i wanted a good visit back home but i didnt expect to find what i had at OU at home.
When i went home, the first week was slow, not much going on, it was Thanksgiving. But then the next 5 weeks, were the most rediculous. I hung out with a very close friend, but we had never really spent alot of time with eachother. She took me to places i hadnt been, to meet people i hadn't met. There was such a good vibe with everyone there, they all liked me, i liked them all. We all hung out and did things almost every day of week. We became a little "Family" of friends. In such a short amount of time i went from missing OU to loving what i had found, and not wanting to leave it. It blurred the lines on where my "place" really was. It was OU for sure and then it got ... ambiguous.
This whole experience has made me realize that "place" or atleast for me and my "place".... its where you make it. Its about the connections you can make with the people around you. Whether its here, or there, or anywhere. You can make where you are your own "place". Right now, i have two "places" i feel i belong. Maybe you can only have one. But for me, Place is where i feel i belong.
When i came to OU i was excited to get here, the freedom, the people, the partys, the school. In West Chester, my "place" was.... restricted, not free, i couldnt make my "place" in this world my own. Too many restrictions, things were too spaced out to really get the sense of place that i achieved when i got to OU. When i got here, from the first weekend... it was fantastic. All of the people were chill, the partys were good, and there was just such a chill vibe to the whole thing. I felt like i had a real home, by that i mean the sense of community you get when you know you can depend on people and they depend on you, and there is no negativity about it all. After the first quarter here i started calling OU home. It felt like home. That is what place is to me. Its somewhere we belong, where we feel we can be ourselves, and make ourselves from scratch. We're "writing our own book" so to speak instead of reading the directions out of our parents "books". When i had to leave OU in the fall, i wanted a good visit back home but i didnt expect to find what i had at OU at home.
When i went home, the first week was slow, not much going on, it was Thanksgiving. But then the next 5 weeks, were the most rediculous. I hung out with a very close friend, but we had never really spent alot of time with eachother. She took me to places i hadnt been, to meet people i hadn't met. There was such a good vibe with everyone there, they all liked me, i liked them all. We all hung out and did things almost every day of week. We became a little "Family" of friends. In such a short amount of time i went from missing OU to loving what i had found, and not wanting to leave it. It blurred the lines on where my "place" really was. It was OU for sure and then it got ... ambiguous.
This whole experience has made me realize that "place" or atleast for me and my "place".... its where you make it. Its about the connections you can make with the people around you. Whether its here, or there, or anywhere. You can make where you are your own "place". Right now, i have two "places" i feel i belong. Maybe you can only have one. But for me, Place is where i feel i belong.
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