Chronicle Reporter
Leslie Figueroa
It has been said that a person lives in three places throughout their lifetime. Now I’m not necessarily talking about three different houses or states that one would live in, but rather a whole different location altogether. See, people will live in three different social places; their home, work/school, and a third place. This is usually a location where you can sit down and socialize. A place to go to after work but before retiring to your bed. These “third places” are critical for relationships. At their best third places are building blocks for a community. Think about places like libraries, malls, and cafes.
The psychology behind it is that different places require different aspects of yourself. For instance, home is where you rest. It is where you lay down your head for the night and sleep. You eat breakfast here, often times dinner as well and in short it is where you are supposed to lie down and rest. The second space is work or school whichever one you currently do. Sometimes people do both and it’s often times also what cuts into their other places. But in general, it is where you work productively and get your job done. Finally, there is the third place. Away from home and away from work, it is a much-needed place of socializing. Typically it is a free place, or at the very least inexpensive, such as a coffee shop, the park, or mall. But why is it so important to us as high schoolers? It is because in a face past life where we have to go to school, spend hours on homework, and sometimes even have extracurricular activities or jobs to work we owe it to ourselves to invest in a place where we can socialize and relax away from our home and work.
But where in Hollywood would such a place be? Somewhere near enough to school to hang out but still far enough that it doesn’t feel like school. Places could be the establishments such as; Starbucks, Waba grill, De Longpre Park. It used to be the shopping mall believe it or not where people would go in and simply hang out with friends. Unfortunately due to the rise of social media and online shopping, the mall as a third place is dying down.Overall the point of the matter is that a third place is crucial for a person. We need a place outside of stressful school life but outside of just rest as well where we can socialize and indulge in the need to simply talk to one another.