Reflections on Cornwall

So it seems I started this blog a year ago today and I've only ever posted two things...how sad. So it seems apt to post something on this way. This is just a jumble of words and nothing coherent but its a feeling I want to document nonetheless. I am constantly thinking about my relationship to the land, and my love of Cornwall for it's landscapes and the myths and legends that are connected to them. It is my goal to write my dissertation on the Cornish landscape and its influence on Cornish folklore but outside of anything academic I've really reached an important feeling lately. For so much of my teenage years and early 20s I couldn't wait to leave Cornwall, I felt isolated and lonely, it was claustrophobic. I felt caged in and I thought that all the bigger and better stuff was outside of Cornwall. But, ultimately...it felt like the people that stayed in Cornwall, who had never left for careers or lives elsewhere, the people who were happy to stay in Cornwall had failed in some way...and I was one of them.

I now realise how narrow minded that was. Yes; Cornwall is a small place with a population that are older than young, and it sometimes feels as if there are little in the way of professional opportunities but what I have now that I didn't when I was a child, when I was a teen, when I was 21 is a sense of gratitude. I am so happy and grateful to be from such a wonderful place as Cornwall, a place that is so filled with history and heritage and culture. Every piece of land has its own myths and legends associated with it. Every town has its own proud little museum. I love Cornwall. And I am finally grateful and happy and excited to be here. This is my home and I am so blessed to be able to explore its many landscapes; whether they are moors or woodland, the coast or fields, I love it all.