In Population 485, Michael Perry explains how he's been shaped by the place in which he lives; in this book, it's New Auburn, Wisconsin. How has the place you've lived (or places) shaped who you are as a person? Influenced your likes and dislikes? Your attitudes? Your identity? Be sure to name the place you are discussing.
I grew up in Paterson, New Jersey. It wasn’t the worse of the state, but close enough that the heart of what you would consider “the streets” hit me at school every single day. My city was the fast lane, and everyone was in a race to grow up and act up. I was in a world were fashion, status, money, sexuality, and sex was the prime of everyone’s life. It was the cliché of movies depicting hardship, but not everything was this negative. Where I grew up and the way I grew up intensified my personality. I became a charismatic boy growing into a young man; experience the lessons of life with the rest of the people I grew up with. I lived in an area where people believed you would not make it, and this set off determination to do the exact opposite. I was in a world of diverse cultural differences that open my mind with every new person I met along the way. The place that I lived gave me the intense temper I have to take care of situations and of people. It gave me the confidence and the smile to walk up to people and be known. It gave me a sense of strength for the real world and every harsh aspect of it. Paterson, my hometown, shaped me and will always have an influence in my life.
ReplyDeleteI have lived in a small town my entire life and it is a key reason why the way I live my life. I come from a small town in Connecticut with the largest police force Fairfield County, and two high performing sport high schools. Even though I went to a private school in another town I still went to school in Stratford until 8th grade and that is why I love to play and be involved in sports. I know most of the people the live in my town and almost all of the people who are my age. Everyone is friendly to each other and it is a town of all seasons. It is hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. The town that I live in is a key reason why I am a Giants fan and that is a key reason why I love the town that I live in. I didn’t want to live anywhere else when I was a kid and I would like to live there until I get a full time job after I get out of college. Living in Stratford has influenced my life in a big way and I am glad that I have lived there my whole life. My hometown is only bout an hour away from New York City so it is close to major cities so my friends and I go to NYC sometimes to just spend a day in the city. But I wouldn’t want to live in a major city, I would much rather live in a small town as a kid and then move to a big city as a get older.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Stamford Connecticut has definitely shaped me as a person. I have lived there my entire life, so I am accustomed to living the same lifestyle. It's pretty small, but there are plenty of things to do, especially if you make the right friends. It has influenced by likes and dislikes significantly. One example would be why im a Boston Red Sox fan. Most of my friends are New York fans and I like to be different so I went in a different direction. If I lived somewhere else than my favorite sport's teams might not be Boston. I think my attitudes and identity would be the same regardless of where I have lived. But overall, growing up in Stamford is part of who I am, and certainly shapes me as a person.
ReplyDeleteI live in Norfolk, Massachusetts and it is a relatively small town. I went to high school at King Philip Regional High School, and we had three towns in that school. Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plainville and the school is located in Wrentham. We are a tri-town so we are barely ever were in our own towns. Norfolk for the most part is an extremely small town. There are so stop lights, and two rotaries, but small rotaries. We have no major stories, or shopping centers, but a few convenient centers. In the center of Norfolk there is a train station which is very convenient. Also, there are two drycleaners, a Dunkin Donuts, Mobile, and a pizza shop. There is barely anything to do where I live so I usually go to Wrentham or Plainville because they are more developed towns. Wrentham was the Wrentham Outlets, pizza shops, Cumberland Farms, a couple gift shops, ice cream shops and 3 gas stations. Plainville on the other hand has a Panera Bread, Target, Tjmaxx, and a stop and shop. I live 15-20 mins away from Plainville, and 10 from Wrentham. Overall the town I live in and the towns that surround me are pretty small, and everyone knows everything. Everyone knows you business and who you hang out with, and what you have done in the past. I love my little town and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
ReplyDeleteComing from Fitchburg MA, I wouldn’t say I’m from a small town. There is no way to know absolutely everyone and there is no way that you want to know everyone. My town is defiantly a part of who I am there are a lot of things that are just deemed unacceptable. Coming from Fitchburg we do not socialize with everyone as you would in a small town. Half the time if you try the people won’t give you the time of day in the first place so it’s not worth the time.
ReplyDeleteI know that from growing up there I am not as much of a trusting person as most people do, not know who you are “allowed” to trust it makes it hard. Also I always seem to have my guard up, you don’t want to go out with it down just giving the simple face that there are a lot of people who love to make rude comments and you cant let people walk all over you like that. So growing up there makes me realize that you can’t trust everyone but you also can’t remove the opportunity to trust people at the same time.
Fitchburg has defiantly influenced my dislikes and likes, whether it has to do with fashion, sports, of simply the fact the because I am from Fitchburg it is built in my not to like Leominster (esp. during football season) or that because I went to St.B we are considered “those girls” even though I am nothing like the people in my school. There are just some things that aren’t worth fighting with people about anymore. My attitude is defiantly reflected by where I am from; I do have a temper however I seem to have a short span of when it will be sent off, only when certain topics come up. I do not have the tolerance for people acting like 2 year olds, and I don’t know if that’s because I always was with kids older than me because of my brothers and sister, or if because you don’t have a chance to be “young” you need to learn the realities of everything quick.
Yes my identity has to do with where I am from and there are many aspects of who I am that I feel would be very different if I were from a smaller town or a place that when I tell people where I am from they say “Oh I heard of Fitchburg in the news someone was killed.” However if I wasn’t from Fitchburg there are a lot of things that would be different I just wouldn’t be myself.
I have lived in Pelham, New Hampshire for 19 years. Growing up it was a very small town especially when my parents first moved in when I was born. Over the last couple of years the size of the town has grown in the number of people, but not in size. The town is experiencing over crowding and a lot of the people including myself have lost some respect for the down. Pelham boarders Lowell and Dracut Massachusetts which has helped shape the town. For me personally the over crowding in our schools made me have a negative outlook. I always wanted to move out of the town. I think that growing up in a small town I have more a shy attitude, but once I’m comfortable I can talk like crazy because there was nothing better to do. I think that a lot of the kids in my town get in trouble because it is really boring, but I feel like I was a lucky one and turned out okay. I can definitely see a change in the town from when I first started growing up till right now. I think that since I grew up here I like to know what’s going on all the time since in my town everybody knew everything within minutes of something happening. I also think that I care about a lot of people because the town was so close. I feel like since I grew up here I am also cheap and hate spending money. I didn’t get attached to fashion as much because there were no stores close by. My friends and I got to know the outdoors a lot more because there was nothing better to do. I think it made me a better person thought because I learned the value of things and didn’t get caught up in materialistic objects. Overall I think that my town has shaped who I am, but there is much more to see out there and I don’t want that to stop me from seeing everything that’s there.
ReplyDeleteMy home town of Millbrook New York has shaped me in many ways. Being in such a small town where everyone knows everyone, you learn rather quickly how to keep your business to yourself, and who you can, and more importantly cannot trust. Being from such a small town, my friends and family are the most important things and people in my life. Growing up in Millbrook, everyone knows everyone which has its expected ups and downs. The nice thing about living in such a small town, is the opportunity you get to form bonds with people. Being as Millbrook is so small, you tend to be with the same people from the A B C’s of kindergarten, to that fateful and bitter sweet moment, when you all throw your caps in the air and greet the world as high school graduates. Having thirteen plus years with the same people, gives you plenty of time to form strong bonds with certain people, and it is this, the strong bond between friends, that I took with me from Millbrook NY, here to Franklin Pierce in Rindge NH.
ReplyDeleteSince my town is indeed small (only 480 people in our high school), things such as working and meeting new people do not come easily for me. I tend to be a very shy person by nature, and do not feel very comfortable in places I do not know; which is understandable seeing as I have spent my whole life in the same town, with the same people. So as you can see. Living in a small town has both ups and downs. I will never forget what Millbrook has taught me. The bond it has blessed me with in the form of a best friend that has dutifully stood by my side through literal thick and thin for the past thirteen going on fourteen years. Though Millbrook didn’t teach me much in the form of education or the world, Millbrook did teach me the famous line of keeping your friends close, but your enemies always that much closer.
The place I've lived in my whole life has shaped me to be the person I am today by the friends that I have met through my life. I live in Wakefield Massachusetts and it’s a small town outside of Boston. Meeting my friends in this town is a big part of how I act and am today. Wakefield influenced my likes and dislikes by showing me people that would talk behind your back and also showing me people who would come up to you and support you. For example, my friend and I coached a baseball team the past year and they were an expansion team. We got screwed over by getting the last pick and our team was really bad for the first year. That year showed me the support that the kid’s parents had for us. They would come to every game despite getting killed every game. My town has an impact on my attitudes that I have today because it showed me how to act to the people that you like and don't like. My attitudes vary for each person in my town. My friends also have influenced my attitudes towards situations and people. My town has influenced my identity by getting involved in my town.
ReplyDeleteI lived in Greenport, Long Island my whole life. It's a small town where everyone knows everyone. My graduating class was about 50 student’s maybe a little less. In a small town like Greenport, everyone is considered to be family. That’s because of the relationship everyone has with one another. Where I’m from, your parents aren’t the only was who raise you and keep you on the right path. Everyone does. That’s just how it works. Every move you make someone is watching. If I was to get in trouble my mother would find out before I could even tell her. It’s easy to get into trouble in Greenport. A way to stay out of trouble was to play sports. The main sport is basketball. All the kids in the town go to the courts and play. People in the community realized it and started to have basketball tournaments for the kids. This kept my friends and me on the right path and away from negative habits. If I was to have children Greenport would be the place for them to live.
ReplyDeleteI'm from Westfield, Massachusetts, a pretty big city in Western Mass, of more then 50,000 people. Even though it's not "huge", it's still bigger then a lot. With being from Westfield, I hate traffic, and crowds of people, and that's why I'm so happy I found a place like Franklin Pierce, that's not in the city and not in an over populated area. It takes a good 45 minutes to cross the bridge from the North end to the South end, and after going through that for a few years, I don't like a lot of people all at once. Also, we have 3 high school in Westfield, so you don't know everyone around your age in your town. Because I was an athlete, and without being cocky, a pretty good one, i knew almost everyone at my high school, which had 2,000 students in it. I had many different groups of friends, and it was easy to make friends because of who I was. I only knew a couple kids from the other 2 high schools, because it was the kids I grew up with and were friends throughout sports, middle school, and even part of elementary school. I've always been pretty shy around people I didn't know, plus I've never really had to make friends in high school, because I already had them, where as here, no one knows who I am, and I'm not coming in with any of my friends from high school, so it makes it harder to make friends. I think from coming from a place like Westfield it has made me beleive I can do more, because everything came easy for me there, like I knew a lot of people from doing so much with sports, and working at the ice arena in town, so now I have to work for everything I do because nothing is just handed to me anymore, so I think it's going to make me think I can do more then more I try. Once you get to know me, I'm very outgoing and easy to get along with and love having a great time, and I think it's because I came from a bigger area and the people I was constantly around.
ReplyDeleteI am from Waltham MA, a decent sized city on the outskirts of Boston. I have lived there my whole life and I wouldn't change a thing. I went to Waltham high school where most kids choose to go rather than private schools. Waltham is a town with tons of traffic and a lot of people. Although there is a lot of people, everyone is pretty close, and word gets around fast. Playing sports in the high school gets your name out there and a lot of people learn to know who you are. There are probably close to fifteen hotels in Waltham seeing as it's right off the highway and close to Boston. You could say its an extremely visited city, therefore the reason for all the traffic. I love Waltham, and I can see my self staying there when I am out of college.
ReplyDeleteThe place I have lived for my entire life is Winchendon, Massachusetts. I consider Winchendon a pretty small town. I believe living in a small town has had a part in shaping me as a person. I feel it has made me feel more comfortable when I am there. I pretty much know everyone and if I don’t they somehow know me. It is usually “oh that’s Phil Tousignant’s daughter”. I never really had a problem being comfortable in school because the same kids were in my classes since preschool. I definitely know that living in such a small place shapes how I talk, with the words I use and who I talk about. I teach gymnastics at the YMCA. Walking through the store with a group of friends I have to watch the way I talk because there might be a parent around the corner and the same with who you talk about because the person might be in the aisle right next to you. I also know that I never did anything my parents wouldn’t like because I knew it would get back to them quickly. It might be through a friend’s mom(who almost all worked together) or someone I didn’t even know but my parents did. I also feel that living in Winchendon has shaped my likes and dislikes. For example I hate driving in a lot of traffic; I would never be able to drive in a city. Also living in a small town I don’t know that I would ever be able to live in a place where every house is right next to each other. I have grown up with a huge yard and pretty much away from everything. Sometimes when going to a bigger city I even find myself feeling overwhelmed because there is so much going on and I am not use to that.
ReplyDeleteI come from a small town, and I feel like this has shaped me to who I am today because, I went to a school kindergarten through twelth grade. It has taught me a lot about myself and about being a role model for the younger children in my school and it also makes me closer to my family. There isnt a lot to do, actually there is almost nothing to do in the town but it makes it so that instead of always going to other places my family tends to stick together and get that quality family time. It also makes me very proud of my accomplishments in my town because people notice and the people care. I think the biggest attraction in the whole town is when the sports teams have games.
ReplyDeleteI love that everyone is so close, you can build friendships and stay with the same people all through school. The community seems very close and people tend to get a long. I also love it because it's my home, the place I have lived forever so it makes it that much more important to me. The dislikes about my town is that the whole town knows everything. One mistake and everyone knows, people tend to judge a little but I feel like this is pretty common in most smaller towns. I also feel like socially it hurt me when I came to college because I had the same friends all the way from kindergarten to senior year. I never moved and I never really had to make the adjustment of making friends. Although this could happen in any school that you go to I think it hurt me because I wasnt ready to have to make friends at this point. I graduated with a small class and I pretty much knew everyone so coming to a college that is considered small was almost shocking compared to the town I come from.
Besides the negative aspects of my town that happen in most towns, my town has taught me so many things throughout my life. It has taught be to be that role model for everyone around you and remember that what you do the younger children are looking up to you. Also to love who you are, and be proud of where you come from.
My marvelous little town with a lot of community support is the little old town of Danville, VT.
Growing up in New York City has greatly affected me and has shaped the way I have become. High school was definitely the most influential point in which the place that I was living affected who I became. New York is a huge place, and if your out on the streets, the entire world is open to you. You can go anywhere do anything, as long as you have a metrocard and cellphone in your pocket. This type of freedom for me has cultivated a sense of independence and self reliance. Streetsmarts are the determining factor in being either thrown to the side of the road. I constantly hear people from out of the city say, “I’m so afraid of the City” or “Id be so scared taking the train by myself”. I laugh because it really doesn’t matter who you are, if you know how to walk down the street you wont get mugged. Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty of racism and ethnic violence. Yet it is secondary, regardless of your color, if you look out of place you are making yourself an easy target. All of these things are things a kid has to learn especially if they are living outside of Manhattan. Even though I live in Manhattan I went to school, and spent lots of time in Brooklyn. It is hard to explain because new york city culture is so broad and diverse, but living where I did and growing up where I did, made me very down to earth. It shaped me to always work hard, it showed me that you need to work hard to be satisfied with your life. It also showed me that everyone is the same, no one is more special than the next, and everyone has the same potential. Overall growing up in NYC taught me many things, it taught me to be self sufficient, not to be arrogant, and it shaped me to love NYC social culture.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Flushing, New York definetely influenced how I grew into the person I am today. Living in Flushing you are touched by many different cultures and growing up around these different ethnic influences has led me to appreciate other cultures more and more. Seeing that Flushing is very close to the city, I grew up in the city lifestyle just as much as the suburban lifestyle. This has definitely helped my love for the arts. Seeing that most of my friends from elementry school lived in my neighborhood and some even went to high school with me, it was kind of hard to go so far away to college and I feel like this may have hurt me in a way. I always hung out with the same people since I was basically five years old and I never really had to make new friends. I feel like maybe if I did venture out of my town a little more I would have been more prepared for going to school so far away from home.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut. It is a small town in fairfield country with many other small and middle sized towns right outside of it. I have lived there my whole life and would not change that for anything. New Canan has deffneitly shaped me into who the person i am. Even though it is a very small town, where almost everyone knows everyone else's buisness it has only influenced me positively. Sometimes New Canaan gets a steriotype for being "coincedied and rude" but that is not everyone in the town. I have learned ot not judge anyone. There are all different types of people in the world and everyone acts differntly. No one should be judged. I liked growing up in New Canaan, since it was such a small town, you knew that it was safe and everyone was always looking out for what was best for everyone around them. People were always friendly and talkative, which helped me be able to build great bonds with friends! Through out school everyone build their own small groups of friends, but also reached out to others and on the weekends were able to combine groups and hang out with big groups sinc everyone knew eachother. I liked how we also had one public middle school and one public high school, that were both in walking distance to the town in New Canaan. Although we did not have many stores or any fast food places, it was not terrible, only because there were town five to fifteen minutes away with everything we needed. I have known/ grown up with everyone since kindergarden, which i really like. Because i have made such greats friends that i know would be there at any given time for me. But i do wonder sometimes if it was a good thing, becuase since i have grown up into almost the same hting since i was a baby, i do not like change at all. I did have times though where i did have to be strong with certain changes that occured and those changes have deffenitly shaped me into the person i am today!
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