About My Home
For my final nature journal, I struggled to find a topic
that could summarize and best exhibit the knowledge I have gained through this
class over the course of the semester. I started to look through my previous writings
where I described my intimate experiences with the natural world in far off
places. I didn’t want to write about another trip or reading. What is the most
important place that I connect with? My family’s home and land in rural
Indiana.
We live on hundreds of acres of farmland that I explored endlessly
as a child with my sisters. It was exciting to see the small leaves of green
start to grow from the ground, signaling the end of the school year and the
start of summer. The trees start to change color in October – reds, oranges,
and yellows. The tree line on the horizon looks like a child took a paintball
gun and sprayed the trees vibrant colors with no sense of order, only beauty in
the chaos. In the winter, my cousin drives his ATV over to our house, which is
about 5 miles away when you take the back roads. We tie one of my dad’s old car
hoods to a rope and attach it to the ATV. Two people can fit on a hood and we
hold on tight as my cousin drives over the snow and ice that cover the field.
My fondest memories are here. I feel a sense of peace wash
over me when I smell the freshly tilled dirt or the fragrant flowers blooming as
I pass by my neighbor’s yard. I know so much about this place and the
intimacies nature shows to those who look closely and often. After graduation,
I will move back home. I don’t have a solid plan yet, but I look forward to living
near my family and community.
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