Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Displacement
To continue on our conversation of displacement, I was having a flow of thoughts as we were discussing it. Sitting there, it hit me how many times, ways, and different places I have felt displaced. One can feel displaced in social situations, at school, a different country, or even in their old group of friends. I found it extremely interesting that we used our homes as our comfort zone and college as our displacement, but then we were able to switch it. I found it interesting how one place can become one's new home. This can happen by spending time and energy in the place of unfamiliarity. The more time spent, the more familar it comes. One can also use the example of a new group of friends. At first, everyone feels awkward and doesn't want to say the wrong thing to upset another. However, the more time you spend with one another, the less displaced you feel and the closer you get. When I think of a home, I think of a warm and fuzzy feeling. When I think of displacement, a picture of a bubble and one person in it and many people surrounding the outside looking in. One can tell that another is displaced by their body language. Usually they are sitting (or standing) with their arms folded looking down at their feet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Michelle,
I really enjoyed reading your blog entry because I was thinking the same thing as I sat in class and listened to our discussion on displacement. I like the fact that after spending so much time of having a place of your own, we're now talking about what happens when you DON'T have that place of your own.
I also couldn't help but think of all the times I had experienced displacement. It's funny because I said college could be an example of displacement, and yet for the majority of the time I've been here, I haven't been homesick. It was only when I got bronchitis for two weeks that I felt out of place here, and all I wanted to do was be at home in that 'cozy' environment with my mom.
I really found it interesting when we were able to switch college and home to college being our 'place of our own' and home feeling as if we're out of place. A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with one of my older friends, and he was talking about how the first summer after your freshman year is the hardest because you go from always having your friends around you, and always having something fun going on, to being at home, with your new friends spread out across the country. This was something I hadn't really thought of before, and something I couldn't help but think of while listening to our discussion.
I think displacement is the best way to descibe my transition from home to college last fall. Before last fall, I had never felt so far away, so detached as I did during the first couple weeks of school. It wasn't that I didn't like college, but I just felt like I was so far away from everything I had ever known, my friends, my family, and the comforts of my home.
It took so long to feel like Saint Mary's was a "home" for me. Something that my parents told me was to treat my college experience as my life, and embrace all aspects of it, as I would if I were at home. I should not treat this a transitory thing, but rather as my life now. This was the best advice I received as I have gone through this year. If one is displaced, in a positive way, such as college, the best way to assimilate and get the most out of the displacement is to embrace it and make the most of it, rather than treating it as a one life, and "home" (whatever the home may be) as another life.
I agree that the original place that gave us the feeling of being displaced can become the place in which we feel at home. I no longer feel out of place at SMC but every time I have a hard day or a frustrating class I think of my home and my family and how much I wish I was with them. I have not yet been home since I have been here but I don't think that when I return I will feel a sense of displacement when I get there. I may feel a little displaced when I return to my high school for homecoming though because it has move on without me, there is a new group of senior that have taken my place. Although I will always consider my high school my home, it will never feel the same as when i walked the halls every day.
Post a Comment