Site and Situation (Part 2)

   Today in class, we talked about the second part of Mr. Schick's blog post, which is about situation. Situation is the location of a place relative to other places. We talked about site yesterday, and now I am realizing they go hand-to-hand with each other. Site is the physical character of a place/location, and situation is the location of a place relative to other ones. These terms are similar because they are both dealing with describing the location of a place, whether it's describing what good characteristics a location has, or describing the location by comparing it with another one. Going further in depth on situation, situation is a valuable way to indicate location for two reasons: (1.) Situation helps us find an unfamiliar place by comparing it's location with another one. Mr. Schick gave the example of our town Bel Air, and how not many people are familiar with it. But if you mentioned Baltimore, which is very close to us, more people would be familiar with the area and it could help them discover Bel Air more. (2.) Situation helps us understand the importance of a location. For example, some places are important because they are accessible to other places due to their location. This relates to Chicago during the Industrial Revolution in America because back then, imported goods didn't have to come just to the eastern coast, but could travel through Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, etc. Chicago then also became a powerhouse for building railroad tracks, so that trains could travel from there and deliver imports from Europe across the U.S.
   Situation is a part of our everyday lives. For instance, we give people directions by referring to the situation of a place/location. We could say something like, "walk up the road and make a left at the stop light. Walk down that passageway and you're at the front of The John Carroll School." That would help someone understand more about the location they are getting to.