Extra Credit Option 1

Extra Credit Option 1

   

For this extra credit assignment, I deliberately visited two cemeteries at midnight; Trinity Churchyard Cemetery (the picture on the bottom) and St. Paul’s Cemetery (the two pictures on the top. I also was able to walk through the cemetery on 155^th street and Broadway on my way from a friend’s house, but I was unfortunately not carrying my camera with me. As you can clearly see, due to the lateness of the hour in which a visited these cemeteries, (which are both very near the site of the world trade center) I was not able to actually get inside either of the cemeteries. Fortunately, the gate went all around the block that the cemetery was on for each, so I was able to get a clear view of almost every gravestone despite not actually being able to get in. 

One difference I noticed between the two cemeteries was that St. Paul’s was certainly much more well-lit then Trinity, and the church was also much less eerie. In St. Paul’s, I noticed many stone casket-shaped objects that had large holes in them, which I found to be very strange and was not something I saw in either Trinity or the cemetery on 155^th street. Both of these cemeteries were very small, and only took up 1 square block each.

The gravestones were surprisingly not as crowded as a thought they would be in either cemetery, considering how small both of the cemeteries are. When I drive past some of the cemeteries in Queens or Brooklyn, despite the enormous size of each cemetery, the gravestones seem to be very close together. When I was walking around each of the cemeteries, I was surprised to realize that I didn’t feel sad at all. Even though I felt like I had come to terms with my own mortality, it did not bother me that much because all the bodies had suffered the same fate and were still so close together, even in death. It gave me a strong spiritual feeling that I can’t really explain, but I am happy I did this assignment.