The Young Old: my transition to adulthood too soon

              In this generation, most children grow up too fast, usually starting at the age of twelve.  However, it was not the way that I was forced to.  I know personally that my mom leaving for a month extremely impacted my life, in part both in a good way and a not so good way.  The fact that I let this episode change me I see more as a failure.  Not that I am disappointed at how I turned out after all of it, but I think sometimes I am more worried than I should be about everything, and it is possible that this had to do with this experience.  In addition, once my mom came back, she always seemed to be mad at me because I would act like the mom without meaning too and she wanted everything to be like she never left.  This impacted our relationship drastically for years, until last year.  I wish I had been closer to my mom through those years, and I wish that I could be a bit less worried about everything.  Between the ages of twelve and fourteen I was consumed by this new me.  Now I'm able to be more fun-loving, which I am really happy about.  Overall through this look at adulthood I became mature and responsible, but I think I could have lived out a few more years in childhood.  Then high school happened...

The Adirondacks<-----link

The Cabin in the Woods



My place where I feel at peace is at my dad's family's cabin in the heart of the Adirondacks  that sits between the first and the third tallest mountains in New York State.  Sitting a ways from a lake, the cabin and kitchen, made of all logs, with no electricity is just a place to escape.  On summer mornings, we get up early and take canoes out onto the lake, drifting through the morning mist hearing the loons on the water.  This place means so much to me since I've been going there my whole life.  The sad thing is, it's changing all the time.  Just this past year, cell towers were installed in the Adirondacks after they never had had them.  This changed the whole feeling of the place and the escape that it was capable of.  However, this place still is able to calm me just thinking about the solitude.  I remember one time we went there and decided to go out on the lake once it got really really dark.  My brother went out in the kayak that we had brought up, but my dad, my other brother, my little sister and I took a canoe.  One of the best feelings I've ever experienced is laying down on my back and just seeing a clear sky full of stars to infinity.  Especially on the lake, you can look up and only see the navy sky as it stretches out connecting me to the mountains and to the universe in one, and it feels like I'm floating in the sky.  This cabin on the lake that I have the privaledge to experience gives me solace, and I am completely at peace, my mind blank, and a part of everything around me.

 

The old imagination

By Layla Stover

 

When I was younger my parents always read to me every night before bed, then to my siblings.  This was one of my favorite books that I can remember. The pictures took my imagination on a wild ride travelling to a world never imagined. Not only that, but this story went leaps and bounds beyond reality to where a childs mind can explore.  Reading it today, I would think "wow this can't happen," but as a kid we take in the stories and let our imagination run wild.  This book makes me think about how there are so many people that don't have what they need, like food.  This story, as food falls from the sky, people catch it with smiling faces as the phenomenon continues.  It makes me think about what if this happened to us.  How it would benefit everyone.  My memory with reading this book is amazing.  The simple black and white drawings that show the wide-eyed excitement and awe of all the people.  Looking back on it, I think How could I ever let my imagine soak in this absurd story.  But, in reality, it's just a fantasy, and dreaming of or imagining other worlds can relieve us for a short time from the hurtful, plain, and  unfair world that we all live in.  This book brings me back to my childhood and my old imagination that we so often forget about, but subconciously long to revive.