The Place Where I Live(d)

For my entire life I have lived in Michigan; for most of it, I lived in a small town nestled in the outskirts of the Ann Arbor area. This is largely the area  that I consider to be my home simply because, until very recently, I have known no other. While my rapidly approaching graduation brings with it the exciting prospect of exploring the world, and traveling to foreign cities, my home town will always hold a special place in my heart as I always found it to be the perfect balance between the buzzing life of civilization, and the calming, quiet nature of the wilderness (calming and quiet because Michigan is, thankfully, blessed with the absence of the scarier sides of nature like hurricanes and volcanoes and the such.)

While I wouldn’t say that my spawn-point has shaped my understanding of myself and the world around me, it has certainly influenced the way I think. Growing up in a town so harmonious with the natural world has given me high expectations for the cities around me. Condensed areas like Detroit and Chicago make me nervous, while quaint villages hidden in the Upper Peninsula make me restless. I know that there is the balance between the artificiality of a human-constructed world and the ruggedness of the world around us and I will forever be craving such an environment.

Thankfully, as far as cities go, Grand Rapids does a fairly decent job of inviting in some greenery. It is also reassuring to know that if the mildly-oversized buildings start to bring with them any sense of impending doom, it is a very short drive away to the awesome Lake Michigan, and it’s many state parks. 

Post 1: Corinne's Introduction

I will preface my introduction by explaining that this is a blog for my English class: Literature and the Environment. I am not generally fond of writing about nature, nor sharing my writing with the entire world. Alas, I am required to do both. The thought of writing a public blog makes me both nervous and slightly embarrassed.

That being said, welcome to Nature et Moi! Though it's not my general topic for writing, I do quite enjoy the natural world (at least until bugs are involved,) green trees and overcast skies are a few of my favorite things. I used to go camping three or four times every summer when I was a kid so I'm happy to say I've had the experience of enjoying wildlife outside of my own backyard. Please, try not to get too impressed, but my parents once told me I had a special bond with the world because it rained on my birthday for ten years in a row. . . so I had that going for me. Obviously, that sacred connection was broken somehow as there have been more than a few sunny days on the 26th of June in recent years. 

To be completely honest, I have no ideas for this blog. Though I am fond of nature, I do not find the world inspiring--in fact, I find it quite the opposite. Most likely, I will wind up writing about things I dislike about nature as complaining is one of my more prominent strengths. 

I will end this discombobulated post by apologizing for its discombobulation; hopefully my other submissions will be more cohesive.

-Corinne