This project was unlike any I have ever done before. I have taken history classes before, but to dig up information about our school’s town and relive memories shared by Glassboro community members was a truly special and enriching experience. As an aspiring electrical engineer, this may be the first and last time that I do a project like this, yet its teachings have left a lasting impression on me. 

This project was essentially a crash course on our Honors Cultural Geography class with Dr. Jennifer Kitson. If another person were to conduct the same project, they would soon realize that everything in their community has a purpose and a reason for being there. Each building, tree, field or office each have their own story and they contribute to a larger web which makes up a neighborhood, a town, a state, and a nation. This gives each part of the town, from the most important buildings to the most insignificant street signs, a meaning. Every single person in the community of Glassboro, or who has ever visited Glassboro, will have a different perception of the town and everything in it, which comes with our sense of place. As individuals, we are molded by our past experiences and therefore have our own unique view of the world; each person’s point of view is one of infinite. 

While this idea was presented in class from the first week of my first college semester, it did not truly sink in until we began fieldwork. To be able to talk to multiple people who have grown up in or lived in Glassboro for decades was an enriching experience, as their first-hand accounts are better than any other. Since they’ve lived through the same times in Glassboro, one could expect that they would share similar stories.  However, this could not be farther from the truth. Though essentially neighbors, each person had their own views about fire in the town, whether it was because of a building burning, glass being created, or new families being formed. This perfectly reinforced the main idea of our course, that though we may seem similar, each of us has a different background or upbringing that makes each event different for each of us. This sense of place gives the world infinitely many unique points of view. This idea was proven true on a smaller scale of the community of Glassboro.