The best part about living such a mobile life — going to school, working, doing extracurricular, going out with friends — is that I’m exposed to a lot of different spaces, all the time. Another part of my habitual movements and actions — school, working, living at home — is that I spend a lot of time in certain places. That means that I become comfortable in these places, and perhaps, am more likely to write truthfully and be forthright.

Primarily, I’ll be writing my autoethnography in my room, on the subway, and on Lehman and Macaulay’s campus. These spaces are spaces that I know well. I’ll describe them, and then discuss the importance mindfulness of space plays in writing.

My Room:

My room is in the basement, and doesn’t get a lot of sunlight. It’s is quite small, on account of the furniture within. My bed takes up a lot of space, as does my computer desk, dressers, and bookshelf. My room is gray, my furniture is white, and the space is typically buzzing with electronic noises from the various devices in the room (my computer, my TV, my Nintendo Switch, Xbox One). There are times where I have to unplug my devices to stop them from making noise, so that I can concentrate better (not that it matters a lot of the time, as I have my headphones on listening to music, a podcast, or a video).

The Subway:

It may seem redundant to describe the subway, but as I’ll discuss, mindfulness of place is quite important. The subway can be grimey, filled with fluorescent light, and with a lot of people, consciously trying not to make noise. The screeching of metal, the buzzing of the old lights, and sometimes the SHOWTIME ambiance.

Macaulay’s Campus:

Most of the time, I’ll be writing in Macaulay’s Reading Room, which is basically a working space for Macaulay students. It’s generally quite quiet, but the floors creak, and sometimes the students can get a bit rowdy, especially when there’s a lot of them. But, as is the case with a lot of Macaulay’s interior, the space is meant to feel very home-y. A lot of the furniture is general CUNY campus interior, but a lot of the furniture seems kind of antique (especially in that room).

Lehman’s Campus:

Lehman’s campus is a bit more clinical than Macaulay’s is. Most of the spaces are white, with fluorescent lighting. The students are much quieter than at Macaulay, perhaps because they’re not as tight knit. I feel as though there’s a sense of anonymity when I’m on Lehman’s campus, as a white kid from Brooklyn. It’s part of the reason I was inclined to go to Lehman, when I was offered it. Knowing few people in the borough certainly has its advantages, especially when you’re trying to get work done.

Now, I’ve gone through the process of explaining these spaces in order to relate it back to the second main point of the prompt: how does being mindful of the spaces you write in affect how you write? Well, I think that every place brings along its own set of biases. For example, in my room, I may be more inclined to slack off and not do my work, but I can also get in the zone (as I often have to do). On the subway, I may be distracted by the noise, or the morning/mid-afternoon lull might allow me to get more work done. The feeling of being home at Macaulay’s campus might allow me to focus and regain a sense of self, and get work done, while Lehman’s campus might purely be a vehicle to get work done — due in part to my anonymity…and of course the point being: it’s a campus.

Being mindful of these places will inform your writing process, and the influences that place may have on it. This may allow you to lean into the biases that these places provide — the hardworking aspect, the home-y aspect. It also may help you avoid the negative biases — like the desire to slack off.

These places don’t event take into account the vast amount of biases that come into the temporal aspect of place. How does living in the 21st century affect my thinking? The era of Trump? What about place in terms of country, or developmental level? How does being a millennial in the first-world (the U.S. specifically) affect my thinking?

Long story short: place has a huge effect in the ways that you write, and being mindful in the place that you’re writing in is a huge aspect of the writing process.

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