Where are you from? I ask you this because knowing where you are from can tell me a little bit about who you are. I was born and raised on the Northwest Side of the City of Chicago and consider myself both a Northsider and a Chicagoan. Because the city is in the Midwestern Sector of the United States, I also identify myself as a Midwesterner and an American.

The North Side, Chicago, the Midwest, and the United States are all places. Places are locations on the earth's surface that have been given meaning by humans. They come in all manner of sizes from as large as a continent to as small as a part of a room. Usually, they have a name, boundaries, and a set of physical and human characteristics. The physical characteristics of a place might include its climate, landforms, hydrology, vegetation and animal life. Human characteristics include language, religion, political systems, economic systems, population distribution, and quality of life. A place's unique combination of these characteristics distinguish it from other locations on the Earth's surface.

Chicago has many distinguishing characteristics. It is a city on the southwestern tip of Lake Michigan known for its ethnic neighborhoods, architecture, Blues music, and basketball team. These are just a few of the more distinguishing physical and human characteristics of a possibly endless list.

Places also change over time. Chicago's place name was given to it by the Native Americans who lived here long before there was ever a "City by the Lake". "Checagou", as they called it, was named after the wild onions that thrived in the swampy prairie landscape. Over time, Chicago has been altered and re-altered as first hundreds and then millions of people arrived bringing new knowledge, ideologies, values, and technologies. These new influences guided decisions about how to use the land, organize society, and relate to distant places. While its basic location and name didn't change, its size and the complexity of its physical and human systems did.

Is there a place that you identify with? What are some of the physical and human characteristics that make this place unique? How has it changed over time?

Please continue to the Region page.