Our special place was a place by the creek that runs through campus. Near Sylvester’s Café, off the walkway, and down to the creek lies our special place. The creek is somewhere we all have gone at one time or the other to destress, to kill time, or simply just look at the water. The water is clear and crisp, leaves floating downstream. The trees are green but beginning to change colors for the season. The environment by the creek is just so peaceful. The location is just such a wonderful and special place for us.
This place felt so special to us for many reasons. One reason is due to the “person” aspect of place attachment. As a group we all connected with the creek, which made us feel a stronger attachment to it. We have bonded as a group and we shared in the same attachment. Another reason for our attachment is due to “affective” attachment. People with a “culture and history around a place have a stronger affective bond to the place than people whose connection to a place was short-lived” (Framework Three: Place Attachment/Place Idenitity, 2013). We aren’t just passing through Chico, we will be living here for at least four years, so we’ve developed a strong attachment to campus and all its aspects. This also has a “cognitive” affect because we know a lot about Chico and the campus, so this leads us to be more attached; in fact, “the more you know about a place, the more likely it is you are attached to it” (Framework Three: Place Attachment/Place Idenitity, 2013). Overall, the creek on campus is a place that we all had a significant attachment to.
The only problem with the creek is how dirty and polluted it is. We could make more of an effort to clean the creek every now and then and keep trash cans closer to the creek so people had a place to throw trash instead of on the ground. If the creek was cleaner, there could be more life living in it, which would make it even more beautiful. We could also try to filter the drains that empty into the creek from several on campus drains. These drains also carry trash and pollutants to the creek via underground pipes, and we could cut down on this by making the drain openings smaller. This would allow not as much trash to filter through to the creek thus making it less polluted and more desirable.
Works Cited:
Framework Three: Place Attachment/Place Idenitity. (2013). Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Blackboard Learn: https://learn.csuchico.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_45360_1%26url%3D