The Difference Between Personal Experience and Experience Through Another

Going to see the Filbert Street Garden changed the image I had perceived from our class discussion. From class I pictured a large simple garden with flowers and bushes on one side, then on the other two sides different plants all neatly settled along the outer walls. That's just the image I had from seeing other professional gardens on TV and in other forms of media. But I also had no knowledge of gardening and planting in any way. But being able to go see the neighborhood and the garden showed me what a community garden can look like; how it does more than just grow flowers and vegetables, it can teach and bring people together. Jason Reed talk about the effects that the garden has had on the students alone demonstrated in small part the huge growth and impact one acre of land can have.

Then walking around and being able to see the people and places around the garden brought me back to where I grew up until I was in high school. A very small community tight with housing, not much green space and only small commercial places within a few mile radius. The few small differences between Filbert Street and my hometown were having the garden and also the community looking to make something of itself, no matter how large or small, the idea was to make a change. It was something I could appreciate and wish was something that my neighborhood aspired to, not to just sit and be dormant within the greater area of Buffalo.

Now to connect this to Linda Shopes presentation last week about oral history. While walking around her steps to a good oral history began to run through my mind, and the problems she often sees. Without the proper way to record the interview details can be missed and completely change what the person was trying to say. Also, without the correct questions and keeping the interview on the right tract, side conversations and less important information will arise taking up important time.

Bringing this full circle, being able to walk and see with my own eyes the garden and neighborhood brought a new light to my eyes about the difference a personal experience has in comparison to a second hand description. Seeing the space and hearing what Jason Reed had to say did so much more than what I could read about and see through other media. What a space can show beats what a page can tell you. A space has an aura, a feeling about it that a page cannot demonstrate. The space has life and personality, while a page is cold and lacks the individuality an area has.