The influence of place
(for better or worse or even something more fluid than that)
Today, as a starting point for your writing, write about a way in which a particular place has defined or shaped you.
On a recent visit to my hometown (or, as close as I get to having a hometown given that I moved around quite a bit as a kid) I had a revelation about what it gave to me. For years, I’d framed the town in terms of what it didn’t have that I wanted and, while it is a fine place, I’d always thought about how much I couldn’t wait to leave and go find adventure in a bigger city.
But, now I am very clear on major parts of who I am that are there because of that place. And, I was able to see it without past filters through which I’d had to see it previously. And, reframing it and seeing its influence anew allowed me to leave with a lot of love for the place.
Maybe this prompt didn’t make you think of a city or town that shaped you so much as a particular workplace where you learned a major life lesson, or the home of a particular relative where a pivotal moment in your life happened. Or, maybe its the opposite; maybe you are the way you are because the place where you grew up was so disagreeable to you that you vowed to go a different way in your own life. Whatever the case, let’s start there today.
