I hope you’ve been enjoying these little memories as they have been released. Visiting memory lane has been a pretty fun ride.
When we moved to Pennsylvania from Maryland, I was given a handful of promises. I was nearly 10, so in a lot of ways, I was leaving everything behind. That’s how it felt anyway. My life, for all intensive purposes, was never going to be the same, and nothing about it was in my control.
However I know my parents understood this to a degree. I was moving from an area full of kids to play with, to the country, where everyone was older. I went through some serious depression at a young age about it. My parents probably didn’t see it, but I was very sad.
I wrote about the house I grew up in, and how I loved it, heck, I never even mentioned how we had a pool. But suddenly I was transplanted into an old farmhouse that felt drafty and smelled like old lady. I was not a happy camper. The move its self wasn’t that smooth, it was riddled with break-downs, and flat tires. But when we finally got to the house, I remember trying to be excited. I had been on the road several times, the house was only a 5 minute walk from my grandparents house. So I knew the environment.
But it felt very closed off, woods everywhere, and beat up old road. The house its self creaked but had definite history. Antique furniture all around, and felt way smaller than our old house, because it was. I didn’t really know what to think of the area, but I knew I had no one to play with. My sister didn’t really play with me anymore, and soon she would be old enough to drive, so I probably wouldn’t see her much.
That’s when I turned to the woods behind the house. I was informed we owned a good deal of property, so I was free to explore. I looked around the woods, there were a few fourwheeler paths that I could take around. It was my first time really going on an adventure in the woods. I had some woods at our prior property, but nothing so large and mysterious.
I really fell in love with the nature of the area. There was a large quarry area behind our house that had been taken back over by nature that was especially interesting. It was its own ecosystem back there. I watched a crane fly away from his nest area and I was immediately in love with the area. Still not sold on the house, but I liked having so much nature around me. It was peaceful. I spent a good amount of time in the woods after I got more comfortable being back there myself. I would explore and mentally map out the areas.
Before I knew it, I was pretty good at navigating in the woods. I felt like they were my woods. My family never really went into the woods much, so they were a place that I had mastered. I always loved the woods after that. Even in this new environment that I felt alone, at least with the woods, it was alright.
EK Creates 