Geography (When I Even Thought About It)

¶ … geography (when I even thought about it) was that it was a class that I had to take in high school as part of my graduation requirements. Additionally, I believed that it was the study of land including a wide variety of areas such as; mountains, lakes, streams, hills, desert and forest areas. If I considered it, I would also think of it as a subject that I was not very knowledgeable in, nor did I really entertain any thoughts about gaining any knowledge about it.

After attending the lecture and reading the article, I learned (much to my surprise) that geography as a study was much more diverse, interesting and intriguing than what I had previously imagined. I discovered that geography is a field that studies much more than just the physical attributes of Mother Earth. Geography studies more than just the mountains, hills, streams and lakes; it also studies the influence (or lack thereof) of man on the land, it is a study of distribution, a study of earth's inhabitants and how those inhabitants interact with each other and the relationships therein. I also learned that there are two distinct areas of study; the physical aspects of geography and the human aspects of geography. I also learned that geographers are more than just scientists who study the land, more than just individuals who are trained in both cartology (the study of maps and mapmaking) and toponymy (the study of names and places); I learned that they also study the way that the environment is affected by those inhabitants who live there and that they study both the physical attributes of the land and how the inhabitants interact with those attributes. I had never before imagined that geography (or geographers) could include so much diversity, or that it would be that interesting.

What really surprised me was that geographers are so diverse and that they have to study so many different things such as leadership skills cartography and toponymy. I also discovered that geographers are similar to people in business and education. A recent article states that "professional geographers value collaborative workplaces as well as opportunities to work independently with the confidence of their supervisors, and their sense of professional identity is enhanced when they feel valued and are recognized for their work" (Schlemper, Adams, Solem, 2014, p. 481). Collaborative communities are normally associated with schools and teaching, therefore I was intrigued to associate a collaborative working environment with geographers, whom I also assumed worked alone. Additionally, I was surprised that geographers worked for different entities such as the government, for business, for education and for profit and non-profit organizations. In the Schlemper et al. study, geographers are described as having to attend a number of professional activities which "are important because they reinforce geographer's sense of positively contributing to their organizations, enhance interpersonal interactions, facilitate work on specific projects, and expand individual's knowledge and skill" (p. 409).