Personal Space: Explorations of Environment, Surroundings, and Sense of Place

This thesis is a mixed collection of prose poetry and creative nonfiction focused on the author\u27s relationship to her surroundings and environment. The poems and essays that make up this thesis are divided into three separate sections based on a shift in environment: childhood in Madison, MS, college in Oxford, MS, and travels outside of the state of Mississippi. While much of this thesis concerns natural environment and landscape in terms of its relationship to the author, the term environment also includes relationships with friends, family and lovers, abstract environments of educational institutions like Catholic school and public university, and social and educational pressures that affect the author\u27s mental state. As this thesis includes nonfiction, the author has tried to recreate events, locations and conversations to the best of her ability from her own memories, journal entries and follow-up conversations with family and friends