A Special Place

I wrote this for my Environmental Sciences course. The assignment asked about "a place that is special to you." I was excited to get this assignment... 

When asked to write about a “place that is special to you” people usually immediately I think of physical space. It is somewhere that is inhabited-- something that can be thought of in terms of outdoors or indoors. Place, however, is more than the scenery around us. It is how we feel when we’re there. It is the space that the mind fills when we’re there. It’s difficult for me to pick a single place because “space” is a very important piece of my psyche. My environment has a great influence on my mood, the things I think about, and the speed in which ideas flow. Environment – sunlight versus clouds, ten-foot ceilings versus those found in cathedrals, wood floors versus carpet, trees versus skyscrapers—has great power over my behavior. Space, whether found through physical presence or through a view finder (I love photography), defines me. I find refuge in space. I find inspiration in space. I love wandering and finding new places or approaching familiar places from a foreign angle.

One of my favorite pieces of literature, Yi-Fu Tuan’s Space and Place, points out that “the modern built environment” created by “architects, with the help of technology, continue to enlarge the range of human spatial consciousness by creating new forms or by remaking old ones at a scale hitherto untried” (116). Appreciating spatial consciousness is a crucial part of understanding humans and their relationships to their environment. In a workshop I attended once, there was an activity where participants were supposed to move around the room. In order to move we the participants could walk, run or skip. After the exercise, the person leading it pointed out that no one squatted and walked, no one ran backwards, no one walked sideways. No one switched directions in which they were moving. No one utilized the space low to the ground or above their heads. No one thought to use all of the space. Instead, everyone did very similar movement and moved around the space in very similar ways. In my bedroom I have posted a quote from Thoreau: “It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. […]The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!” I like to think about this often, reminding myself that the shortest route is not necessarily the best route and is certainly not the only route.

Picking a specific place to talk about does not communicate effectively my attraction to the idea of space and place. However, if I had to choose one place at Wellesley it would be the bridge that crosses the water separating campus from the President’s house. I visit it when I want to be pensive. I’ve stood on the bridge on a cold and rainy winter day, holding an umbrella while wearing a pair of gloves. It is a place where the weather does not really bother me. I like the texture of the stone bridge. I appreciate the sound and fresh air created by the water flowing beneath it. I enjoy the narrowness of the bridge and how it almost hugs me when I stand on it. On the bridge I am surrounded by earth both natural and constructed. In the moment, though, it does not concern me how the scenery got there.

I find myself spending a lot of time indoors and at a computer. I would rather be on the bridge, but as an alternative, I surround myself with pictures of special places. To me what is captured in a picture is not equivalent to actually being there but it is second best. I rely on the camera to capture space and the emotions that go with it. Because of this, I often spend more time taking pictures of where I am than I actually spend just being in the moment so that I can almost simulate the feeling of being there long after I leave. I can be at my desk writing a paper for environmental science and look at a picture of the bridge and immediately the positive emotions rush into my head. 

This is a picture of my friend on the bridge that I took using black and white film. The film did not advance as it was supposed to so the image is different than I first intended, but I think the error almost enhances it.