There’s this weird phenomenon that always happens when I tell people I wrote a book about place attachment. They desperately want to tell me their place history. Where they grew up. Where they used to live. Where they live now. Where they wished they live. Absolutely everyone on earth has a story to share about place—and from what I’ve seen, … Read More
Where Do You Really Come From?
Imagine you’re at a party with a bunch of people you don’t know, and someone asks, “Where are you from?” How do you respond: With the name of your neighborhood? Your city? Your hometown? Your state? It probably depends on a couple things. First, the social context. If you’re from Mobile, Alabama, and you’re standing at a Mobile bar surrounded … Read More
Moving to a New Town: The Impact on Kids
To break the news to our two daughters that we were moving to Blacksburg, Virginia, I concocted a scavenger hunt around our house in Austin that finally led them to a wall map. Next to the state of Virginia, a Post-It note said, “We’re moving.” Ella, then ten years old, looked at us with glistening eyes. “Really?” she said. Then … Read More
Issue 1: My Book Is Here. Well, Almost.
I’ve spent nearly three years working on it. Luckily, you only have to wait 11 days. My first book, This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live, will be published by Viking/Penguin on June 21. In a nutshell, it’s about how to put down roots and be happy in your city—and how, after … Read More
The Power of Public Grief
For the first couple years we lived in Blacksburg, Virginia, I refused to participate in the Virginia Tech Run in Remembrance. It just felt too weird. Every April, the university organizes a 3.2-mile run to memorialize the 32 students and faculty members killed in 2007 by a student who’d chained the doors to Norris Hall shut and sprayed classrooms with … Read More