A Little Background

I am a white, 17-year-old girl from broken middle class family in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. I was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and lived in Whitinsville for the first couple of years of my life. My parents divorced when I was 3; my mom and I moved in with my aunt for about a year. She then began a relationship with my stepfather, and we moved to Woonsocket. I've lived in the same small apartment since first grade, even when my little brother was born. I went to one of the best public elementary schools in the district which greater prepared me for honors classes throughout middle and high school. I played field hockey and golf in high school, as well as sang in the chorus and select choir. I also traveled to Rwanda, Africa last March, which impacted my life greatly. I graduated tenth in the Woonsocket High School class of 2013, and am now at Rhode Island College studying towards a major in radiology.

Family is very important to me. Since mine has been broken almost my entire life, I'm interested in studying the change in family life. I spent a lot of time at Purgatory Park as a child, and have a lot of subjective memories there. I also have subjective feelings about family life. These feelings, however, will probably make it easier for me to conduct my research. I see things as an outsider: I've never grown up with a happy family like I believe most kids should have the privilege of having. I'm content with the way my childhood was, though. It makes it easier for me to see both sides of family life.


I'm doing my field study on Purgatory Chasm State Reservation in Massachusetts. The subculture mainly focused on in my field study is a split between families and hikers. . . mainly “outdoorsy people” in general. I feel as if society is changing, families don't seem as close today as they were when I was a child, and I want to find out if my inference is true. Also, do people who spend a lot of time out doors have a specific reason why? Do the park rangers enjoy their jobs? So many questions could be answered by small interviews conducted within these subcultures.


I'm concerned about Purgatory Chasm being a kind of boring place to conduct a study. After my first day of conducting field notes, it already seems like the park would be populated more on the weekends verses on a week day. Also, how much information will I gain from Purgatory? It may be interesting to me, but what about those reading my paper? How can I form an interesting final product with such broad information. The anxiety of not having a set topic to write about seems to be getting to me already. Hopefully as the note-taking continues, the field study will become more interesting.