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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. |
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< | Setting Down Roots/ Small and Large Places |
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> | Setting Down Roots in Small and Large Places |
| | -- By JackSherrick - 15 Apr 2021 |
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< | Start talking about physical spaces than move to mental spaces
Types of Space |
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> | How The Land Got Here |
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< | The Value of Space |
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< | How The Land Got Here |
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> | Tens of thousands of years ago, vast glaciers inched their way across the land that would later come to be called Illinois. When the glaciers began to melt and recede to icier climes at the end of the last ice age, they left behind a 100-feet layer of rich sediment and revealed an alien terrain. The landscape had been completely flattened, extending for unwrinkled miles in every direction to the horizon, "hardly presenting a bush to relieve the eye." The glaciers' parting gift of top soil was perfect for Big Blue Stem, Compass Plants, black-eyed Susans, and the countless other prairie grasses that clung to the earth with such adamant ferocity that the landscape of Illinois has been all but impervious to the powers of erosion that threaten to alter its topography. |
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< | Tens of thousands of years ago, vast glaciers inched their way across the land that would later come to be called Illinois. When the glaciers began to melt and recede to icier climes at the end of the last ice age, they left behind a 100-feet layer of rich sediment and revealed an alien terrain. The landscape had been completely flattened, extending miles in every direction to the horizon, "hardly presenting a bush to relieve the eye." The glaciers' parting gift of top soil was perfect for Big Blue Stem, Compass Plants, black-eyed Susans, and the countless other prairie grasses that clung to the earth with such adamant ferocity that the landscape of Illinois has been all but impervious to the powers of erosion that threaten to alter its topography. People embraced the alien landscape and learned how to live among its grassy residents. Indigenous tribes would conduct prairie burns that scorched the earth with a heat so intense that forests were unable to establish a foothold in the region. However, prairie roots run deep and the grass stems would burst forth from the ground reinvigorated after each burn. Now, the prairie is all but gone, eradicated in an instant and replaced with fields of corn and soybeans. Illinois' glacial inheritance is being squandered on corn syrup and ethanol by the American Prodigal Son. |
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> | People embraced the alien landscape the glaciers left behind and learned how to live among its grassy residents. Indigenous tribes would conduct prairie burns that scorched the earth with a heat so intense that forests were unable to establish a foothold in the region. However, prairie roots run deep and the grass stems would burst forth from the enriched ground reinvigorated after each burn. Now, the prairie is all but gone, eradicated in an instant and replaced with fields of corn and soybeans. Illinois' glacial inheritance is being squandered on corn syrup and ethanol by America's Prodigal Sons. |
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How I Got Here |
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< | I grew up in the "Prairie State" and did my best to help the area live up to its nickname. My family is involved with prairie conservation and maintains an island of native prairie amidst the sea of feed corn abutting it from all sides. I followed the prairie to Carleton College, which boasts an 800 acre arboretum teeming with native and nonnative grasses. |
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> | I grew up in the "Prairie State" and did my best to help the area live up to its nickname. My family is involved with prairie conservation and maintains an island of native prairie amidst the sea of feed corn abutting it from all sides. We mow trails, sow seeds, and conduct prairie burns to preserve the quality of the topsoil that had been deposited there tens of thousands of years earlier. I followed the prairie to Carleton College, which boasts an 800 acre arboretum teeming with native and nonnative grasses. |
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< | When I moved to New York, I left the Midwest and its flat open spaces behind. I was disoriented by the looming buildings that seemed to stretch vertically into infinity yet blocked out the horizon. I felt closed in. Most of the activity done in the prairie is occurring beneath your feet in the congested webs of roots pulling nutrients from the soil and pumping them up to the gently swaying stems above. But based on my months in New York, everything seems to be happening everywhere. I learned to find refuge amongst the various parks that mottle the concrete landscape and how to appreciate the cacophony (or symphony, don't want to get too sappy/carried away) of humanity that I myself was contributing to. I started to develop roots that anchored me to the alien landscape I had moved to. |
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> | When I moved to New York, I left the Midwest and its flat open spaces behind. I was disoriented by the looming buildings that seemed to stretch vertically into infinity yet blocked out the horizon. I felt closed in. Most of the activity done in the prairie is occurring beneath your feet in the congested webs of roots pulling nutrients from the soil and pumping them up to the gently swaying stems above. But in New York, everything seems to be happening everywhere. I learned to find refuge amongst the various parks that mottle the concrete landscape and how to appreciate the cacophony of humanity that I myself was contributing to. I started to develop roots that anchored me to the alien landscape I had moved to. I carved out a small space for myself within the large space that is New York City. |
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< | The Why
Initially, I thought my background with conservation would lead me towards environmental law. I thought my "why" would be preserving America's quickly disappearing natural landscapes. However, I instead felt myself more pulled towards housing law. Moving from the Midwest to New York has made me realize that I had been taking the space I inhabit for granted. Everyone inhabits a space. I have respect for the drifters and nomads that don't associate "home" with |
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> | My Practice |
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< | This include the physical contours of our body which |
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> | Initially, I thought my background with conservation would lead me towards environmental law. I thought my "why" would be preserving America's quickly disappearing natural landscapes. However, I instead felt myself more pulled towards housing law. Moving from the Midwest to New York has made me realize that I had been taking the space I inhabit for granted. I had been used to sharing my space with green things rather than human things. I now understand the importance of making a small space your own while you're amidst millions of other people trying to do the same. |
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< | One's property is not one's absolutely, my right to do what I wish with what I have should not be so unrestrained that if severely impairs your right to do what you wish with what you have. |
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> | I want to make sure people have a space of their own. Not only a place to retreat to in times of trouble, but a place to share with others in times of prosperity. One of the greatest gifts of ownership is not the power to keep people out, but the power to let people in. To open up your small space to allow others to enjoy the intimacies of the home. No man is an island, and that truth extends to the small spaces they most intimately inhabit. A few weeks ago, I began doing work with the Tenants' Rights Project. My goal with the TRP is to help people set down roots without fear of displacement, to help people feel secure in the spaces they inhabit so they can share that space with others and thrive in other big spaces outside their homes. Protecting these small spaces is essential to my practice.
Space in Law School |
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< | Illinois' nickname, The Prairie State, is a testament to the immense destructive power of these glaciers that spent millennia flattening the area with their weight and the |
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> | The relationship between small and large spaces is an ever-present concern in law school. Wendell Berry writes about the danger of disregarding the small spaces that allow us to enjoy the large places. He writes in his essay Contempt for Small Places, "The health of the oceans depends on the health of rivers; the health of rivers depends on the health of small streams; the health of small streams depends on the health of their watersheds. The health of the water is exactly the same as the health of the land." In the same way, my health in law school depends on my health in New York which depends on my health in Morningside Heights which depends on my health in the law school and my apartment, a space which I can call almost exclusively my own. If people do not have security in their small spaces, the chain is broken and harm reverberates from one space to the next and to the next. |
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> | I don't value the space inside Jerome Greene Hall because it insulates me from what's outside, I value it for the people it contains on the inside. I want to set down roots along with my fellow law students to weather the erosive forces that would seek to drag us towards money, dissociation, or a what without a why. I want to remain anchored to a why so each setback, failure, and burn doesn't uproot me but rather restores me so I can spring back up more energized than before. |
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< | Wendell Berry writes about the danger of disregarding the small spaces that allow us to enjoy the large places. He writes in his essay Contempt for Small Spaces, "The health of the oceans depends on the health of rivers; the health of rivers depends on the health of small streams; the health of small streams depends on the health of their watersheds. The health of the water is exactly the same as the health of the land." In the same way, my health in law school depends on my health in New York which depends on my health in Morningside Heights which depends on my health in my apartment, which depends on my health in my room, I space which I can call almost exclusively my own. If people do not have security in their small spaces, the chain is broken and harm reverberates from one space to the next to the next. |
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< | I want to be a champion for the small spaces. I want people to be secure and know that their small spaces are protected from the forces that would seek to rob them of their autonomy over spaces. One of the greatest gifts of ownership, is not the power to keep people out, but the power to let people in. To open up your small space to allow others to enjoy the intimacies of the home. No man is an island, and neither should their homes be. |
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< | Space as Inspiration |
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< | Space as Security |
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< | Digital Spaces |
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> | Some notes
I didn't expect to give so much historical background but I enjoyed writing that section the most.
The space I came from ----> the space I went to -----> how I learned to appreciate that space -----> How that influences what I want to practice -----> how to best use my current space
ḥanīn ilā l-awṭān, al-
Space as Inspiration and Security
One's property is not one's absolutely, my right to do what I wish with what I have should not be so unrestrained that if severely impairs your right to do what you wish with what you have. |
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< | American Dream
Having your own space is a core tenet baked into every iteration of the American Dream. |
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> | Digital Spaces |
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> | American Dream |
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I want to secure space for others. Give them their own
Space as a Rivalrous Resource |
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> | Space as a Rivalrous Resource |
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< | Space for You
Space for Me
Space for Us |
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