Cosmogram

In drawing my personal blue line, it began in Michigan, where I was born, then darted back down to Tucson, then across to Poland, to Provo, UT, to Bristol, England, back to St. George Utah finally to Orlando, Fl.

When analyzing my image, I find that the trace evokes the image of paddleball's trajectory, if we were to plot this image onto a map of the United States and Europe.


My earliest family history began in England, the farthest ancestor able to be accurately identifies is a John Snow, born in 1480 in Somerset, England. In 1668 his descendant (also named John) immigrated to the colonies and settled in Massachusetts. The Snows were very happy in Massachusetts until Zerubabel Snow moved the family to Vermont. Erastus Snow then migrated across the plains eventually becoming one of the founding members of St. George, Ut in the 1860s. My father left St. George to pursue his education, eventually starting his own practice in Tucson, Arizona where I was brought up.

It would seem that my entire family history has been a pull westward, a tale of expansion and migration with this almost magnetic pull to the west. It brought John out of Somerset, Erastus out of Vermont and into the west where roots were firmly laid down. And, no matter how seemingly far away I go, I seem to be pulled back to it as well. The west seems to be the base of the paddleball, with the distances away from the west decreasing each time. My first foray was by far my longest, from Tucson to Poland. However, I returned to the west to go to school at Brigham Young University. I then left again, this time not quite as far, to Bristol, England to pursue my Master's. At the conclusion of that adventure, I went back west to St. George. I am currently in Orlando, pursuing the final step in my education and can only assume, based on this blue line, that I will return west. When I return, I might find the place much different than when I left it, as every time I go back to Tucson there is always some new shopping mall or subdivision to greet me.