Where are you from?
A quick post on a note I heard today. I was talking with a friend who stated "I have lived here 35 years and I still am not sure I am an Annapolitan."
Interesting.
We talk a lot in the online office at HometownAnnapolis.com about identifying with communities, feeling a sense of place, and the unique mix that is Anne Arundel county (and then we throw in Kent Island and Bowie to make it interesting).
This is especially important since we have branded the main website of The Capital hometownannapolis.com. Since we have an audience in all these areas, this question is a professional one, not just philosophical.
What kind of identity is there living here? Is there a sense of place? Does there need to be one? Deep questions for sure. For any community.
But assuming that most people feel a need to be 'from' somewhere, what would you answer if someone asked you "where are you from?"
Are you an Annapolitan? What does it take to be one of those? Are you an Anne Arundelian? Would your answer be: "...from Kent Island" or "South county" or "Gambrills" or "near Baltimore" or what?
I guess names for places and people who live there don't mean much unless people need them. But for people like me who do identify with a place and like to express that succinctly to those who ask - it is a bit of a riddle figuring it out. I live in Piney Orchard in Odenton. I work in Annapolis. We travel all over the area on weekends. When people from back home ask me where I am now, I say "Annapolis, Maryland."
Maybe it is because I am a southerner. I have heard that if the first question you hear upon meeting someone new is "what do you do?" they could be from most parts of the country; but if that question is "where are you from" they might well be from the south. That statement is probably over-generalized, but it is true that roots do mean a lot to most of us southerners.
So this might be a question you are not interested in.
But I am still intrigued by my friend's statement.
And I wonder: what does it take to be an 'Annapolitan?'
That too is now a part of my search for Annapolis.
Next post I'll talk about my introduction to Phil Merrill.
Interesting.
We talk a lot in the online office at HometownAnnapolis.com about identifying with communities, feeling a sense of place, and the unique mix that is Anne Arundel county (and then we throw in Kent Island and Bowie to make it interesting).
This is especially important since we have branded the main website of The Capital hometownannapolis.com. Since we have an audience in all these areas, this question is a professional one, not just philosophical.
What kind of identity is there living here? Is there a sense of place? Does there need to be one? Deep questions for sure. For any community.
But assuming that most people feel a need to be 'from' somewhere, what would you answer if someone asked you "where are you from?"
Are you an Annapolitan? What does it take to be one of those? Are you an Anne Arundelian? Would your answer be: "...from Kent Island" or "South county" or "Gambrills" or "near Baltimore" or what?
I guess names for places and people who live there don't mean much unless people need them. But for people like me who do identify with a place and like to express that succinctly to those who ask - it is a bit of a riddle figuring it out. I live in Piney Orchard in Odenton. I work in Annapolis. We travel all over the area on weekends. When people from back home ask me where I am now, I say "Annapolis, Maryland."
Maybe it is because I am a southerner. I have heard that if the first question you hear upon meeting someone new is "what do you do?" they could be from most parts of the country; but if that question is "where are you from" they might well be from the south. That statement is probably over-generalized, but it is true that roots do mean a lot to most of us southerners.
So this might be a question you are not interested in.
But I am still intrigued by my friend's statement.
And I wonder: what does it take to be an 'Annapolitan?'
That too is now a part of my search for Annapolis.
Next post I'll talk about my introduction to Phil Merrill.
posted by Alan Eason at
5:16 PM
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