Sense of place, to me, is how a certain place makes you feel. This feeling is often created by a combination of two things: the physical features of a place and personal experiences involving that place.
As I am typing this journal, I am sitting in my room, at my desk, staring at the computer screen. In my three years of college I have developed a somewhat negative “sense of place” for the area around me. On numerous occasions I have missed a surf trip, a beach day, or a day on the boat because I have had to sit at my desk and study. I understand that 99 percent of the time studying will benefit me far more than any of the activities I could be doing, but there is something to be said for the firsthand knowledge that can be gained in the out-of-doors. In certain areas of study I have learned an exponentially greater amount by spending time outside, doing the things I love, than I will ever be able to learn in a book. I have learned the physics of casting a lure precisely where I want it to go, not by an exponential equation, but by spending hours perfecting my cast. I have learned when the waves will be good and when they won’t, not by reading a book on oceanography, but by seeing the surf build first hand and the weather patterns that cause the change in the swell. All of these things can be learned in books and classrooms, but the majority are impossible to implement without firsthand experience.
The learning that that takes place outside of my room, away from my desk, is what causes me to have such a negative sense of place whenever I am in my room, studying at my desk.
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