The cold brisk air slaps me in the face as I exit the garage. Yet my face is the only thing that gets cold. The tons of clothes I am wearing ensure that I will be warm for a while. There is no light except for the beam that is emitted from my headlamp, as I place my pack on my back and gun on my shoulder. I trek through the snow and all I can think is Good thing I got these new boots. I look at my dad and wave him off as we split ways to get to our respective spots. I walk for a couple more minutes in the pitch black only hearing the cold wind biting my nose and the crunch of the fresh snow beneath my feet. I reach my stand and begin the climb, I climb the ladder and reach the top, once at the top I hang my bag on a nearby branch and squeeze through the opening and plop on my seat. I place my gun against the rail and sit. 

Sitting there is not like sitting anywhere else. It's not like sitting in class or even sitting at a movie, this is something else, something that is so hard to explain. I forget that I'm in the woods somewhere in northern Wisconsin. The feeling created is like nothing I have ever felt. It feels like I am living in a nature documentary. As the sun rises and it reflects off of the snow almost hurting your eyes, as the wind ruffling the leaves is the only sound that I can hear. And my eyes are burning from the cold, so much so that I have to close them. 

The landscape below me holds trees taller than anything I’ve seen, the path in which I walked in on, and an open space with field bushes spotted throughout. Sitting there nothing is on my mind. I feel as though I’m lost in space, and stuck in a trance. I am not thinking about what is for lunch or what homework I have from the week before, there is nothing on my mind, and the only thing that can break my trance is the sound of rustling leaves or the breaking of a branch. The breaking of that silence and intriguing all of my curiosity and attention. 

As I sit there I hear a SNAP! My head quickly turns to the sound of the noise, and my heart begins to speed up like someone just floored the gas, it gets faster and faster, hoping that a dear emerges from the brush, and one larger than i have ever seen before hoping it's one of the ones that I awed at from the trail cameras, but then I am disappointed as I see what made this noise, I squirrel emerges from the brush, and almost as if it were mocking me, stares me directly in my eyes.