So this evening I pulled on my puffy jacket and found my one left glove (no idea where the right one is, besides definitely not in my room) and walked down to the lake to pick out my reflection spot. I started walking back towards the creek we examined in our first class because I liked that I had never really been there before that class. I ran into George who was also looking for a reflection spot. Well actually he had found one, now he was just throwing some rocks onto the frozen creek before starting. I was pleasantly surprised to see the creek had frozen over and decided I wanted to sit as close to it as possible. I saw a tree sticking out of the bank that had the perfect spot for sitting between a place where the trunk split off into 3 large branches. I worked my way down onto the spot, dangling my legs over the frozen creek and staring at the road before me.
I tried to tune out the sound of the cars passing by but was unable to do so. I wondered why that spot had appealed to me so much, and if I should move to a quieter spot. But then I realized why that spot was so attractive to me; it reminded me of the tree in my backyard at my old house. Before we moved in 4th grade we lived in a house that had a huge (well what I thought was huge) tree in the backyard that was perfect for climbing. Several times my mom would walk outside and find me reading books up in a branch of the tree. I was never a huge tree climber, but I ALWAYS climbed this tree because it felt so natural to me. And that’s why this new spot by the lake appealed to me so much; it had a very similar sitting spot that reminded me of my old memories.
As I let these thoughts pass through my brain I got increasingly frustrated with the cars. I would not let them ruin my spot. Why hadn’t they just turned into background noise like most traffic does when I’m sitting somewhere on campus? Finally I decided to turn around and put my legs up on the bank and lean against one of the 3 large trunks. And like magic the cars faded into the background noise I was used to. I realized that because I was looking at the road the added visual stimulation made me focus on the cars more than just the whooshing sound does when I can’t see the cars. I was satisfied with my spot finally, just in time to see George emerging from the woods and heading back to Lakeview.