My sense of place occupies my hometown Summit in New Jersey. This is the town I have grown up in minus the first four years of my life. My town is a commutor town with a direct train line to New York City, so there is a lot of economic diversity in the population of my town. Due to my town being very close to the city, it is a suburb and mostly developed despite a few parks spread throughout the town. I have a strong sense of place at the green spaces in my town, where I would walk with my family when I was a child. My sense of place in my town has been developed mostly through my abundance of memories I have from growing up in the area. Due to living in this area my whole life, I know where everything is which makes me feel secure in this place. Because the built environment in my town is mostly developed with residential areas and a downtown area, I am able to identify where I am through my memories made in my downtown as well as my work experience. I worked at an ice cream shop for three years in my town and am very aware of the surrounding area. Since leaving home to go to the University of Vermont, I feel as if my sense of place back home has become stronger because of how much I miss it. I think back to my good memories that I made in my town throughout my life while I am at school which makes my place-attachment stronger to this location. Aesthetically, there are places around my hometown that increase my sense of place to my town due to the proximity between locations I enjoy. There is a place called the Great Swamp which is preserved land near my town where I would go to watch the sunset in the summer. A picture of the Great Swamp is included at the end of this blog post. This place is beautiful and full of natural wonders which increases my appreciation of where I grew up and what land I had available to me to explore. Ever since I left home to come to college and I went back for break, it was strange seeing the place I feel the most connected to again. It felt as if all the memories I created in my town came back instantaneously the second I came back to my town and drove through it. The types of trees around my house also increase my sense of place of my home. I have cedar trees all around my front yard where I played when I was little. Now, when I see a cedar tree it reminds me of home.
