What Is a Place-Pre-Write

So as I'm sure you all know, we have an essay due on Monday. It's supposed to be about a place, personal or not. It could be a place you haven't even been to but have always wanted to know more about. This is my pre-writing to get some ideas for that because really, I have many. The first thing that pops into my head is of course my hometown of Conway, here in Missouri. It's a tiny little town where "everyone knows your name" and sometimes they even know what you did on Friday night before you do. There were alot of good and bad memories growing up there, all of which created who I am today. Took me a while to get here, as alot of those things were pretty traumatic for any teen, but were also very character-building. I know there would be alot of things I could find out about it and definitely end up with many pages, but I'm afraid they wouldn't be as interesting words to you as they are to me. Another place I think of is a place that my family once went on vacation to and it ended up in near tragedy. There was a flash flood and I thought my brother was dead, but I think he's writing about that in another class so it's out of the picture. San Antonio and my first trip there to see the Gulf of Mexico flashes in my memories, as that was my first clue I was unhappy in my marriage at the time. We were there on our one year anniversary, so yet again, pretty personal and probably not much fun to hear about. I have always wanted to go to Ireland, it's my number one dream destination. However, there's a guy in our class who absolutely lives and breathes Ireland, so I'm sure he'll write about that and I wouldn't want to torture our teacher with the same place twice. So, I think I have decided on my second dream destination, New Zealand. There aren't any bad memories there, only the good ones I hope will be established there one day, and there's plenty to research as well. Besides, who wouldn't want to write about all the possibilities and history of such a gorgeous piece of land?