Flagstaff: Place to Shape a Personality - Essay Example

Module Flagstaff Flagstaff is a small town in Arizona surrounded by beautiful mountainous scenery and located a few minutes fromthe Grand Canyon. The small town has many elegant homes that are complemented by an honest and caring community. The town has numerous unique attractions that make it a major tourist destination in Arizona. The famous route sixty six once passed through Flagstaff, thus making it a historical town (Tripadvisor). This small, clean town filled with friendly people and surrounded by a beautiful desert region, is the place where I grew up. I attended elementary school in this town, went for my first nature trail here, learned how to ride a bicycle and most importantly learned how to live with other people by interacting with the people of Flagstaff town. All my childhood memories are based on this beautiful town. The beautiful sceneries of Flagstaff and its caring community have influenced my persona and shaped my personality. The people of Flagstaff are warm and very friendly even to strangers. As I was growing up in Flagstaff, many of the people I interacted with believed that one should treat others the same way he or she would want to be treated. Their actions are filled with kindness and they conduct themselves with humility. The people of Flagstaff imparted these qualities on me when I was a child and I have lived to practice deeds that emulate them even when other people try to take advantage of my nature. My parents, who are Flagstaff natives, have treated other people respectfully and they have instilled the same on me by being a great example, thus demonstrating the manner in which I should conduct myself when interacting with other people. Flagstaff is considered one of the safest towns in Arizona as the criminal activities are isolated. The people of Flagstaff are very close and this aspect has helped them foster peace with one another. Every individual enjoys a close relationship with the people from the surrounding area, therefore, making perpetration of a crime, a difficult task. Some people from our neighborhood often joked that the little criminal activities present, were perpetrated by non-Flagstaff residents as they believed that the community did not host any criminals. Growing up in this community, one was taught to ask but never to obtain anything without the owner’s consent. My neighbor, an elderly woman, usually left her backdoor open so that the cool breeze could cool her house during the summer and no one took a piece her delicious pies without asking her for it. This is a tradition of the people of Flagstaff and assimilating it has led me to become an honest person who loves to interact with the people that I live with. Other people are able to trust me because I am able to foster honesty with them. Flagstaff is well-known for its scenic beauty, the mountainous outdoors, the nature trails and the ponderosa pine forests that make it an amenable place to camp. I fell in love with nature when I was still a kid and my father used to take my siblings and me for camping, mountaineering and mountain biking in the adjacent parks. Flagstaff is surrounded by various parks like Buffalo Park, Thorne Park and Wheeler Park, which provide great camping sites for the camping enthusiasts (Tripadvisor). It always turned out to be a great experience whenever my father took us camping as we were able to watch the different kinds of birds and animals during the day, and watch the constellations of stars at night. Camping in these areas of Flagstaff revealed that I had a passion for nature. Whether it was the beautiful green scenery filled with cold fresh air or it was the sandy, dry desert climate, it brought a feeling of calmness as I strolled peacefully across the environs of Flagstaff. The beautiful scenery of Flagstaff that is characterized by a pollution free environment inspired me to appreciate the environment for the many advantages associated with it. The natural beauty surrounding Flagstaff is phenomenal and the amazing places a person can visit are limitless. Waking up in the morning, I used to get an amazing feeling by staring at the magnificent San Francisco Peaks. The fact that Flagstaff was a few kilometers from Sunset Crater, Meteor Crater, Oak Creek Canyon, and Walnut Canyon made it easy for me to access the beautiful landscape (Tripadvisor). In the silence, I used to ponder about the outcome of losing these beautiful places and that was when I got the inspiration of becoming a part-time environmentalist. As I pushed on with my career, I wanted others to recognize the beauty that our environment grants us. I could not imagine living in a world devoid of its natural beauty and I even advocated for an environmental movement when I was in elementary school. I owe Flagstaff for igniting the love for nature in my soul, therefore, helping me to discover a place that brings peace in me. Flagstaff is a small town and the laws are not numerous and neither are the law enforcers. The laws allows for many activities that are not practiced in the cities. Gardening is one of the activities, where the residents can peacefully grow their food without many restrictions from the authorities. The residents are able to live more freely than they would if they were living in bigger towns. As I grew up, there was a lot of free will in the town as many residents could even practice hunting without getting a license. Flagstaff accustomed me to a life where I could wake up and decide to go anywhere without contacting the authorities. With all the bureaucracy in this world I feel that my freedom has been reduced since the small town of Flagstaff had given me liberty. Flagstaff is a small town with a low population; therefore, its localities tend to have very low populations where everybody knows the other. In my neighborhood, most of the problems were solved communally and easily done. We interacted peacefully and whenever a person in the community hand a problem, everybody got involved in trying to solve it. This was a great initiative because everybody participated and this made the afflicted resident feel like he or she was a part of the entire community. Interacting with all the residents also made the area safer because when one called for help others would respond. As I grew up watching everybody helping each other, I acquired the instinct of helping out whenever another person was in need. Therefore, many people find me resourceful because I have been conditioned to help. I also find it easy to interact with people thus making a lot of friends. Unfortunately, some become untrustworthy but because I have always been kind and forgiving, I usually end up forgiving them and forgetting the wrongs done. The people also believed in accommodating different people from different places. This is the reason why the Native Americans and people from different races live in harmony in the town of Flagstaff (Tripadvisor). During my childhood, I never witnessed an event where another person was racially discriminated. This has always stuck to my mind because I would never have known about racism were it not for the history lessons in school. The government has even allocated art galleries and museums where people from all over the world can showcase their different culture in Flagstaff. The Flagstaff community taught me to shun physical differences whenever I was interacting with others, and take the differences as a learning opportunity where both of us could benefit. Flagstaff was a great town to spend my childhood in. The community and the surroundings have shaped my personality and influenced the direction of my life. Work Cited Tripadvisor. "Flagstaff Attractions: What to do & Places to Visit in Flagstaff." Things to do in Flagstaff: Check out 42 Flagstaff Attractions. (2013). Web. 10 Dec. 2013. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g60971-Activities-Flagstaff_Arizona.html Read More