Leila Barber- Lane: landscape + soul & being

“Tell me the landscape in which you live and I will tell you who you are” -- Jose Ortega y Gasset. Lane says ‘place molds personality as well as serving as an anchor of human existence; Landscape connects the soul with Being’. Over spring break I went to Florida and visited the island that I grew up on for eight years. I moved when I was young but have many distinct memories of the area. I hadn’t been there in over ten years until this February. I was nervous and excited to go back, I didn’t know what was changed or if anything was the same. That island was/is my paradise. It is where I feel I am most rooted. This place connects my personality with my soul. I believe there is something about the place where one is from that helps define and create that person and their character. Although I was there for only a short period of my lifetime, Florida is where I was born and it is forever with me. The ocean, sand and beaches is ‘in my blood’. To me, nothing is more peaceful or nostalgic then that landscape. As I crossed the bridges to the island this spring, so many memories and experiences flooded my head. I knew exactly where everything was located and how it used to be. A lot of it was the same, surprisingly. I was flooded with indescribable emotions. It was strange to notice how attached people can be to a specific place. We moved to the mountains of Virginia when I was eight and I have resided there ever since but I still don’t feel like its my home. I don’t view myself as a Virginian and feel weird saying that my town in Virginia is where I am from because the majority of people there have generations of family born and raised in that area. I consider Florida and the island as where I’m from.