Kayla Delaguila, experiences of a natural place

The other day in class we listened to those songs, the first one was about leaving home, and the emotional baggage that comes with that. I first thought about how for some people the word home and the word nature do not coincide in the least. Nature is home for me, literally and figuratively. My house is placed in the middle of 8 acres of forest. I have to drive 10 minutes to get to the closest gas station. The girl in the song talks about the stream where she went when she was little not having the same effect on her anymore. I can relate to that one hundred percent. I have a creek about ½ mile from my house that my brothers used to go to everyday in the summer… it was quite a hike for me when I was little. I imagined the creek as this semi-magical place, untamed and beautiful. It always made me feel warm and I always had fun. I walked down there this past summer, the trek only took me about 5 minutes, which in itself took some of my magic. What I found when I got there was a barely running creek with overgrown grass and a strange smell. I was very disappointed with this because I was looking forward to feeling the warmth that the place used to give to me. Age brought me reality, and I wish it hadn’t. After that tangent, back to leaving home… I realized when I left for college that yes, I was going to miss my family obviously, and my possessions and actual house, but really what I miss the most is the trees. I miss the breeze and smell of the air. Then I realized that not everyone in the world misses trees when they leave home. Some people don’t have trees at home. Is it easier or harder to leave nature than to leave a house? You can find trees anywhere I guess, while your house is your house, that’s only in one place. Then how could I possibly miss my trees so much? Because they are mine. The trees are part of my identity just as anyone’s house is. Should we as people be that attached to anything physical? A tree is a tree and a house is a house essentially… but that’s the “give up worldly possessions” girl speaking. Hmm.. that’s all!