What does it mean to be a geographer?

Joseph Mayfield, B.S. in Geography from UNT, ESRI Technical Writer

Is a geographer a person who has memorized all the world’s countries and their capitals? Is it just someone who makes maps? Am I a geographer if I got my degree in Geography?

I currently work as a technical writer for ESRI, my first real job since graduating last May. Even though there’s no mention of spatial analysis or geoprocessing skills in my job description, I use things I learned in UNT’s geography program everyday. One of the most important parts of my job is being able to study a topic in depth and then communicate the things I’ve learned to a diverse audience. I developed and refined these research skills in almost every class I took with the department. Because I work for a company that makes GIS software, I am constantly reading up on new technologies and trying to understand not only how they work but how they’ll be used. The things I learned in my geography courses provide the context I need to see the value of products and tools and their potential applications. In a practical way, the GIS classes I took provide the foundation I need to test workflows and write up best practices for using ArcGIS.  The experiences I gained while working towards my degree prepared me in many ways for the things I do now working in the real world.

The influence of geography in my life has extended past the workplace. My growing interests in cartography, sustainable development, geodesign, location based services, and mountain climbing all deal with the spatial world on one level or another. The beautiful thing about this field is its relevance in so many other disciplines. I’m often reminded of Waldo Tobler’s first law of geography: "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things." Taking a combination of physical and human geography classes has helped me to better recognize these relationships and understand their significance.

So, what does it mean to be a geographer? To me, it’s the way I connect to my environment. It’s about thinking spatially and framing my experiences from a spatial perspective. It’s being able to see the way things relate to each other because of their location. To me, it’s being curious about the world.