There’s a stereotype that Americans don’t know human geography. The stereotype probably stems from some truth, but not me, I know a thing or two about a thing or two. Well, I at least know where countries are. I’m not incredible with individual cities, but I’m not the worst. And then there’s also physical geography, important stuff if I remember that gen ed class from freshman year of college correctly.
College is kinda crazy, the individual professor can really shape what students learn. Some professors are really into one niche and try to connect so much stuff back to it, or branch out in other directions starting from their comfortable home base. My physical geography professor was super into eels in the Hudson River. That was her passion and it was so obvious. She started teaching as an adjunct professor for health insurance, but she didn’t just coast by, she really tried to help people learn the curriculum while also inserting her passion. Beyond that, she was super into voting and handed out applications to register, encouraged students to vote. She took her job pretty seriously and treated it as a civic duty to provide people with an education. She also gave out extra credit, which I loved. Those professors were few and far between in college, fair enough, but when one offers it, you better take advantage. Well, maybe not, I don’t actually think doing well in school has gotten me or will get me anywhere. I don’t know though, something about doing a little extra, especially when it’s not too hard, is good for the soul I think. I think it’s good to learn random things and for one to put their best effort.
Geography can encompass a lot of random things, many of which actually pique my interest, so it’s probably one of my favorite subject matters. As you know if you read niches, I really haven’t found what I’d consider a niche interest with utilitarian value. Maybe I should explore different aspects of geography and see if I can come up with an idea of a topic that encompasses my interests while also providing something useful to the world. Let’s not get into defining what is useful quite yet… maybe one day.
So, let’s start to explore different sub-disciplines of geography now I guess! Let’s see if I can find something else that I may want to dive into. I’m of the school that there are 2 main branches most sub-disciplines can fall under. I should probably put this paragraph higher up since I mentioned both of them in the first paragraph. I will not be moving it because I simply don’t feel like it, it’s a Friday after all. I think I’m just gonna be listing some fields, not really much more, so it probably works better at the end. While looking into it, the sub-disciplines that stuck out to me most were human, cultural, population, political, historical, and regional geography. Cartography is an honorable mention. I guess I’m just naturally drawn to the humanities over the sciences. I do love the fields that sound made up. If only I could find my little niche! It’s okay though, because we’re trying. That’s better than where I was a little over a week ago. I definitely wasn’t going to figure it out just chilling out. Now, I’m slowly learning what gets the juices flowing a little more than average. Maybe I’ll never find a niche where I can become a real expert, but I’ll learn more. And that’s what I’m really interested, as you may know from my first 3 posts on here. I wish it was profitable and/or useful to be a jack of all trades (especially as a gal), but it feels like it never can be. Anyways, maybe I’ll watch a YouTube video on cartography now.
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