The Climb
As I sit atop this tree, I feel a sense of nostalgia. I have always thought better when I am up in the air, it's just the nature of me. Up here I can see all around. The land in front of me slowly becomes weeds, then water. The life of summer has been sucked out of the trees and new duller colors have taken their place. The lake sways softly like a mother trying to put her child to sleep. The crashing sound of the waves against the shore is the bass to the song of the forest. This song, is more melancholy than that of summer’s. All the creatures sense the cold and prepare to hide out or fly away for the winter. As winter approaches, every animal has its obstacles it must hurdle.
Though the seasons may be changing, there is still life in this forest. As I peer into the brush I see all the little eyes looking back at me. The animals rustle through the leaves like a child that can't fall asleep. Even when we are sleeping, nature is always alive.
I spent about an hour trying to find a tree. I had to go a little off the trail to find a perfect match. Not everything in life can be found at first, and that sometimes I must look deeper. Just like when I thought I found my tree earlier, then as I was sitting in it it snapped. Now I have found this new tree, I can see and hear so much more. The value of patience can lead to even better things than I realized were available.
All the people around me may laugh at me when I climb this, but this is just like anything else in life. An obstacle. Whether you consider climbing the tree (which wasn't easy), or staying balanced, this is an obstacle none the less.
In life I started out at the base of the tree looking up. Like when I entered the high school; I seemed so small in the crowd of kids. When you enter the hallways you just become one with the sea of people swarming to every class. It is an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people.  To a freshman this is quite overwhelming.
At that point, I had a long way to go with many obstacles to overcome. Like balancing life, work, school, and activities. I felt the same way the first day of football my freshman year. Freshmen are treated as the low man on the totem pole. The maturity difference between the seniors and freshmen becomes apparent in a sport like football. The seniors have beards and know exactly what to do without being told, the freshmen just sit there confused. Even in football we go through through all these tough early years, just to play on varsity and be an upperclassman.
Then I start climbing, struggling, getting hit in the eye with branches. These are the endless assignments we go through. The hours of study for tests. I have especially found this in my senior year. All the work is just piled on, the previous years don't prepare you for the work to come. The struggle becomes harder than it has ever been before.
Just so that we can climb further up the tree, and reach our goals. My goal is to make it to a nice college, and hopefully get some form of scholarship. That is what pushes me to succeed. Every day when I come to school I think about where I want to be, what I want to accomplish.
Humans by nature have the will to succeed. We persevere through all of these challenges just to get a view from the top.
Halfway to the top of this tree there is a “Y’ shape, like a soccer player yelling “GOAL.” It cuts the tree into two parts. This represents the choices we make in life. Both have different outcomes, paths for us to take that change our lives. This is like when I had to decide whether or not I was going to do wrestling or join drama. I had been in wrestling since I was very little, but I had always been into acting. I ended up chosing doing drama and am happy I did. No matter the path we take, we have to live with where we decide to climb to. The higher up we climb, the better the view is.
I hear many different noises as I sit in this tree. The birds chirping, crackling of the leaves from the wind, animals dashing through the bushes. All distractions from the goal that is set. Persevere. Some things are out of our control. Just like the way the wind blows.
I am happy I took the time to find a nice tree. It wasn't easy to find. The climb made my hands hurt, I got wet feet, and stuff all over my shirt. The branches poked me in the face, and the animals chirped like a crowd booing. All of these things don't bother me because, man the view sure is nice from the top.