Valerie McDougal

April 14th, 2018

RSM 120: Prof. L. Lane

My Leisure Travel

Place attachment can work differently for different people. While place attachment is

defined as a person’s emotional bond with a specific place, I don’t think that it is necessarily

permanent for some people. For some people, the attachment is permanent, but for others, it’s a

matter of other things- people they’re with and things that they’re doing. For people like me, I

form temporary attachments and it happens most when I am with certain people and doing

certain things.

I have a group of friends and we do a lot of things together. Not all of us are necessarily

together at one time when doing things, but most of us are. For example, last year, the majority

of us traveled to Roswell, GA, and floated down the Chattahoochee River. For the time being, I

am attached to that place, but mostly only because I was with friends doing something that we

enjoy doing. I wouldn’t necessarily attach somewhere I was visiting alone and/or for business

purposes. As far as where I live goes, I’ve always felt that I couldn’t stay in one place for long.

I’ve been attached to Myrtle Beach and Conway for so long, and now, I’m getting an opportunity

to go somewhere else to attach. (My husband just accepted a job in Hawaii so we will be moving

later this year.) For some people, like my mom, attachment is permanent and in one place. She

lived here for a good chunk of life when she was married to my dad, but after they split, she

headed back to Texas to help care for my grandparents. Even after my grandfather passed away
and she was helping take care of my grandmother- Alzheimer’s and dementia patient- she felt at

home and where she should be. She’s told me several times that she couldn’t imagine living

somewhere else.

I suppose we’ll see if my theory about my own attachment will be true although I’ve seen

it prove true for other people im my life. After all, we only have one life to live. May as well

make it an adventure, right?