Self as a place

Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You'll find what you need to furnish it - memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.

Tad Williams

The quote above was chosen because I wanted to explore the themes of independence and self reliance, and how when things get tough, our experiences, and with what weve learned our true nature is revealed.  Specifically, the words "Never make your home in a place." to me this part of the quote was most compelling. I have lived a nomadic existence, with barely any roots since I was a kid.  I would place this quote to reenforce my point of view at the end of my paper. To summarize how I have never quite fit in anywhere, but with myself. 

Biography of Place- make up assignment

1.     The quote I chose to use in my essay is from “The Most Amazing Challenge” article. Hawken’s speech is centered on the theme of restoring the land and the responsibility of the graduates to restore the land. He says, “Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider.” This theme of restoring and rebuilding land relates to my farm because part of the farm is in the nature conservancy now, in order to restore the land so that no one can build on it and change the natural landscape.  

2.     This quote can be used to support part of my essay where I discuss the preservation of the land in the nature conservancy. It backs up the idea that my grandfather donated this land in order to save it from being built on and to save the homes of the wildlife that lives there. I think it also supports the idea that it is humanities job to preserve the land and make a change. It proves that one person can make a difference.

Biography of place

For my biography of place I will be doing one of Snowbird, Utah. It is a ski resort. It's the place I learned to snowboard, the place I had the best day of my life, the last place I skied with my father and the last place he skiied as well.
It's is high in the mountains of Utah and it's an old ski resort with lots of history that I can explore.

Biography of Place

For my biography of place essay, I will be talking about a trip my family took a few years back to Cusco Peru where we visited the ancient city of Machu Picchu. This is a famous archaeological site that belonged to the Inca Empire. It consists of complex palaces, plazas, temples, and homes in which we scholars can conclude that this may have been built as a ceremonial site, a military stronghold, or a retreat for ruling elites.  The ruins are located in a beautiful area high in the eastern slopes of the Andes, covered with tropical forests of the upper Amazon Basin. Landscape engineering skills are in strong evidence at Machu Picchu.  The sites buildings, walls, terraces, reclaim the mountainous terrain and make the city blend naturally into the rock escarpments on which it is situated. I believe the Lopez article of External/Internal landscape will help me relate my feelings when I first visited this place and will incorporate it in my essay.  This place has been themed as the “lost city” where no one, not even experts, can determine what this city was used for since it was abandoned and the Inca had no written language.  I would like to focus on my paper how the “lost city” was once very isolated (not even the Spanish conquerors knew of it for a while), and now is far from isolated due to the fact that it is a must see for any visitor to Peru. This creates a challenge of preservation of the site while making it accessible to visitors which I will further look into. 

Biography of Place

To be honest I'm really not sure what I am going to write about for my biography of place.  I can only really think of one place that has shaped me to be the person I am, and that was Camp.  I went to a camp called Keewaydin, located on Dunmore Lake, in Salisbury Vermont.  I've spent just around 10 months of my childhood and early adult life there.  At camp I learned many things such as canoeing, kayaking, hiking, survival, carrying my own weight, the importance of teamwork, and countless other skills and lessons, but most importantly camp has helped me build my own personal identity.  Keewaydin is a little over 100 years old and has a rich history of campers but also sits under the awesome green mountains, home of the legendary Green Mountain Boys who fought the word of the British crown before it was cool.  Vermont's Green mountains have a large history and involvement with revolutionary war.  Overall Vermont and her mountains have molded me to be the person I am now, and the U.S. would not be the same without the good fight the Green Mountain Boys fought.

Biography of Place Outline

Situated 43 miles off the mainland of Honduras sits the southernmost of the 3 bay islands, Guanaja. Ravaged by category 5 Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Guanaja was nearly wiped off the map, and is currently an island struggling to survive. It has all the potential of a strong tourist industry, yet the people suffer from little to no economy.  The lack of industry leads natives to over-fish and over-harvest their natural resources in an attempt to survive. Despite a lack of governing and enforcement to protect the environment, Guanaja still is home to some of the best fishing, and diving in the world. Guanaja is a small, primitive island, 11 miles long by 3 wide, with 15,000 inhabitants teeming with life. 7 years ago in June I set foot on Guanaja for the first time. I have since returned each summer to work with a fly fishing lodge situated in the southern cays of the island. From year to year, my life continues to fly by at an unimaginable pace, but Guanaja is almost frozen in time, still home to the same humble, grateful, smiling faces which greeted me 7 years ago. Over the years, I have been lucky enough to watch the Flyfish Guanaja operation grow from what started as only a dream, into one of the premier salt water flyfishing destinations in the world. It is not the crystal clear waters nor the abundant fish that keep me coming back, but the people who call this place home. Through providing the best jobs in the history of the island, it is grounding to experience the impact we have made on the lives of our crew. Through countless days on the water, in their homes, with their families, and immersed in their way of life, I call these people nothing less than brothers. Again and again I am humbled by their willingness to go out of their way to share a smile, welcome a stranger, and simply their joy for life, even in the face of tragedy. In a world foreign to that which we know, this place and the people who call it home have given me a new meaning of gratitude, sense of place, simple life, and a life well lived.

Biography of Place - Old Town, Fort Collins

For my biography of place assignment, I would like to focus on the historical district in the city I grew up in. Fort Collins is rich with history surrounding the military fort that stood there in post Civil War America, including the gun powder cache's that lined the banks of the Poudre River. It was also an agricultural hub, and even held the title of the largest sheep farming city in America for a short period. I want to explore how the physical landscape changed to reflect the socio-political landscape throughout the late 1800's and into the 1900's, emphasizing key moments in history such as social movements and movements during major wars. Even in more recent times, the city has undergone a huge growth spurt that has transformed it from the place that I know from my youth to a place that I can hardly recognize when I return home. Essentially, I want to explore just how this external landscape transformed to reflect the internal landscape that I associate it with when I think of what it was like to grow up in Fort Collins.