Relationship and Having a Sense of "Place"

As humans our relationship with place can be analyzed and viewed in multiple ways. First through how our surroundings meaning from the people we’re surrounded by to the environment and ecosystem in which we live in effects us. Through analyzes people often use common quotes to describe the places there in. For instance “home is where the heart is.” A simple yet meaningful quote that sums up that our hearts will always belong to place we considered home. While some may view place as a physical entity other see it as a more metaphoric none physical thing. For example people often sum there life existence up in the idea that they are finding there place in the world, whether it may be through a profession, how they treat others, or even taking care of there family. Although people hold different meanings for their place and surroundings one thing is for sure we all have a relationship with place and weather we like it or not it is always important to hold a sense of place if not a physical place a metaphoric and spiritual place within the world.

My personal relationship to place is very similar to what I believe my classmates relationships our, and when I say place I mean both physical and metaphoric place. Right now my physical place being Athens, Ohio I view as a location to flourish and grow. First of all I do this through the education I’m receiving at Ohio University. Secondly I do this through meeting new people and experiencing new things, and while at school I do both of these things on a daily bases. As for my sense of place in a metaphoric manner, I believe this is directly linked to my physical place. I hold this to be true because as many young adults I am working on defining my place in the world and trying to understand where I want my place to be. This links ups with my physical location because like many others I hold to be true that college is one of the key moments in life where we decide what we hold to be truly important and how will we find our place in that. For example after my first quarter I still find myself feeling that I will only find my place in service to others, hence I continue to pursue a major in Social Work.

Knowing your relationship with place is just as critical as knowing it is important to have a sense of place. Having a sense of physical place allows you to understand why you are somewhere and what maintenance needs to be done to ensure that your location can still carry out it’s purpose. For example by understanding I am here in Athens to flourish and grow I can assume others are here to do the same. By making this assumption I can respect Athens and help maintain an environment that is conducive to do this. As for why it’s important to have a sense of place in a metaphoric manner, is because it allows us to build goals and yes even define our own success in life. Having a sense of place allows us to maintain and add purpose to our lives.

As long as humans exist there relationship with place and having a sense of place will always be important. We see place as a physical entity meaning our environment and surroundings, along with being a metaphoric entity meaning purpose in life. My relationship with place in both a physical and metaphoric manner is a developing one, similar to how I am developing as a human. The importance of having a sense of place is to provide us with goals and guidelines on how to proceed in our everyday lives to shape the image we eventual want to represent ourselves. Over all without place both physical and metaphoric we as humans lose a sense of purpose.