Free «The Map of My World» Essay

Maps are the images of what people think of the world. Every individual can draw a map of what he/she wants to project. As Klinghoffer (2006) said, “Maps are projections”. Thus, the map maker shows his/her own prospective of the world, so it is all in people’s mind what could we place in this location or not. It may not be correct, but it only shows what a person wants to see in his/her map. So what you see in someone’s map is his/her culture, political perspective, or imagination. In addition, Klinghoffer (2006) states that “The cartographer’s projection of the outer world is therefore dependent on his own inner psychological state as his maps are based on an ‘act of seeing’ rather on ‘what was seen’ ”. Usually when someone draws a map, he/she tends to put his/her home, city, or country in the center of the map. That describes the psychological perspective of a person rather than the physical location of his/her home or country. Therefore, people tend to project what they want to see instead of what is real. Everyone in this universe has a center of his/her world, which is his/her home or homeland. Thus, that is the main location of people’s lives that they want to project on their maps. Even though, sometimes it is not accurate, to their point of view, it is what they want it to be (Klinghoffer, 2006).

This essay will discuss two maps of two individuals. The first map is my own map that describes my world. The second map is my colleague’s map that describes his own world. Also, this essay will discuss the similarities and differences between the two maps.

My map describes my world. What you see in this map is my perspective of the world. Everything in this map is important for me. It does not mean that there is nothing in the world except the places I drew. It does not mean that I do not believe that anything else exists. Around the places I drew there are sea and other countries that are surrounding these places. It only shows what I want to see in my map because there is nothing important for me as much as these places.

First of all, the center of my map is Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Jeddah is my homeland; it is the place where I grew up in. All members of my family live in this place. This place is where we make a living. There is no other place that I can think of that would replace this place. As you can say “there is no place like home”. Even though, I haven’t lived there for four years, but I will eventually return to it and it is the only place that I care for. Jeddah is not only the center of the map. It also takes a lot of space of my map because it carries a lot of my memories and my life. It also shows the places that are important in Jeddah which are my house, friends, school, and other places that I frequently visit. It also shows why it took so much space to draw Jeddah even though it is not the largest city in Saudi Arabia. That is because there are so many things that I want to show in the center of my world. Sometimes people think that any place is perfect as long as the people that they care for are with them in the same place. I do not believe in that, still the center of your world carries as much as the people you care for space in your heart. You cannot get rid of that as easy as moving from an old home to a new one. Also, my map shows the second place that is very important for me in Saudi Arabia. It is Mecca, and I am sure everyone knows why Mecca is important for every Muslim. Originally, I come from this holy place that has Al Haram which is the destination for every Muslim to perform Haj or Omra. Also, Jeddah is the nearest city to Mecca and it is one of the privileges of this place. Thus, that is why the center of my map is Jeddah.

In addition, the east of my map is where the UAE is located. I did not draw other countries, because it is not important as much as the UAE. This place, as you can see, is where Sharjah and Dubai is located. This place is important for me because I live there now. Sharjah is the place where my home is and where my university where I study is. In my perspective, Sharjah does not take much place in my map because it is mainly the place where I study. My home and the university are what I have in this place. On the other hand, Dubai is the place where I meet with my friends and go to places to relax, so it is mainly for entertainment. So, my map shows the places where I frequently go and that have value for me in this location.

Moreover, the west of my map contains three places that are important. First location is Switzerland, the place where I continued my high school. I had lived there for one year before I moved to the UAE. My map does not show much in this place because it was mainly the village where I lived called Leysin. Geneva is the city that has the airport, so I had to go to Geneva in order to get to Leysin. Zurich is a location for a winter vacation. Almost every winter I go to Zurich to spend my winter vacation there. Basically it is my winter home, that is why Switzerland is the part of my map. The second location is London; this is the place where I lived for two years when I was a child. Also, it is my one of my summer homes. Every summer, I spend half of the summer vacation in London. This place is very special for me because it is the second place I lived in. My map also does not show much for this place because I believe that London does not have to be detailed; to me it is just the place as a whole. It also shows Windsor, which is the second place in England that is important. There is where I had my second home in England. The third location is Mallorca; this place is an island near Spain. This place is my second summer home. I spend the second half of my summer vacation there. This place is important because I have been going there since childhood. The only places that I knew when I was a child were Jeddah, Mecca, London, Windsor, and Mallorca.

This is the map of my world; these are the places that are the most important places in my life. Thus, this map describes my world and my life.

The second map is my colleague’s map. The center of his map is Sharjah, UAE. This place is important for him because it is the place where he grew up and lived most of his life. It is also the place where he studies and his family is lives. In addition, Dubai is a place where he meets with his friends and a place for entertainment. Moreover, Abu Dhabi is important for him because it is his home land. His map also shows Jeddah, Saudi Arabia which is located in the west; he drew this place because it is his second home. He has relatives who live in Jeddah, so that is why Jeddah is important for him. The east of his map is where Indonesia is located; he drew this map because it is his summer home and he has relatives who live there. So, Indonesia is a very important part of his life. Furthermore, another place that is located in the west of his map is Turkey; it is also a place of entertainment and a place where he spends his summer vacation.

There are similarities and differences between my map and my colleague’s map. We both have Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as a home in our maps. But the difference is that Jeddah is the center of my map, and Jeddah in his map is located in the west. Also, we both have the UAE in our maps but the difference is that UAE is located in the east of my map but in the center of his map. That is because my home land is Jeddah and his home land is UAE. In addition, I have in my map London, Switzerland, and Mallorca which are important for me because they are the places where I go to. He has in his map Indonesia and Turkey because they are also important to him because they are the places where he goes to. Thus, the differences here is that I have these three locations that he doesn’t have in his map, also he has these two locations that I don’t have in my map. Therefore, that means that we both have similar and different characteristics of living. We also have different perspectives of how our maps are projected. That shows our different psychological images of how we distribute our maps and how we want to show our maps of the world. It shows the difference between my history in life and his one. It also represents how we move around the world, what places we usually go to. It also might show the difference of our personalities, how we look at our lives. Moreover, we can say that we have the same culture because we both come from the same region, but there are some differences in our cultures. Therefore, the issues of why we put this here and why we excluded some parts of the world show what we want to show in our world. The locations show what is the most important in our lives. We both excluded some parts of the world because they do not relate to anything in our lives. So, such are the similarities and differences between my map and his map.

In conclusion, there are two maps that are discussed; my map of my world, and my colleague’s map of his world. My map show the places that are important for me which are Jeddah, Mecca, Sharjah, Dubai, Switzerland, London, and Mallorca. His map shows the places that are important for him which are Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Indonesia, and Turkey. Both of us drew the places with which we want to project our perspective of our world. Both maps have similarities and differences. There are similar and different locations. Also, the maps show the differences of how our characteristics, life stories, and personalities are projected.