I was born in Hilliard Ohio, on July 25th 2000. My family quickly moved to Dublin Ohio, which is still where we live. Our current house is about 30 minutes from where I was born. Dublin is a suburb of Columbus Ohio. It is a normal suburb with a bunch of cookie cutter houses and not a lot of nature. The thing that connects me to my house is what makes it different from the rest of Dublin, the woods that we have in your backyard. This woods is where me and my friends would play when we were young. I have so many good memories of exploring those woods. The woods are also home to many animals I have personally seem multiple deer, squirrels, skunks, coyotes, racoons, and several types of birds, including hawks. Because of the woods I feel a lot of attachment to my house specifically.

    I also feel very connected to the general area of Dublin. I have a relatively unique perspective of Dublin because I was a cross country runner and we would run all over the place getting our mileage in. I have seen the landscape change as it continues to expand and get more people moving there. When I started middle school the district had 12 buildings and around 4,500 high school students. When I graduated from the district had 14 buildings and around 6,200 students. This increase happened so rapidly because they kept building apartment buildings and the area got nicer to look at. When I started cross country there were some trees between the street and the sidewalk. The sidewalks were also in moderate shape. When I finished cross country my senior year, there were a lot of trees around the sidewalks. A good number of the sidewalks had been dug up and replaced with full bike paths.I also saw the downtown area of Dublin expand a lot and become more urban. All the buildings in the downtown got renovated, and they put in a huge parking garage. I had never really thought about how much the area has changed since I started living there. I was also there when Dublin started the obsession with roundabouts. At the start there were zero, currently there are at least  9 major roundabouts and they are planning more. 

    Growing up in Dublin Ohio definitely impacted who I am. There are two reasons that I am here and growing up in Ohio had a huge effect on both of them. The first is that I am here for the amazing environmental school. This was started at the Columbus zoo which is very close to Dublin Ohio. The Columbus zoo is where I started to love penguins. I found out about climate change through my love of penguins and then I started to become environmentally conscious to help save the penguins. Penguins are the reason I am an environmental science major. The second reason I am here is because the school is very trans friendly. Ohio is not a state that is actively trying to get rid of trans people, just is actively ignoring them. This is because the state is a swing state that has been leaning republican in recent years. I came here because I didn’t want to be treated differently which is why my sense of place, as in where I consider home is starting to change.(dont tell my mom)