In life, we all must deal with distractions that force us to stray from our life paths.  Distractions could include anything from peer pressure from friends to a family tragedy.  Despite these distractions, we all must overcome them and strive to reach our goals and continue on with our lives.  One way that I have found to overcome these distractions is to simply step away from reality and isolate myself and my thoughts in the forest.

The morning air felt cool and damp as my classmates and I exited the bus to begin our English class field trip to the Brush Lake Forest.  As I sauntered down the roughly trimmed trail, I spotted a fallen tree near the lake that I decided would make a suitable perch.  I was briefly able to enjoy the sounds and silence of the forest before a group of my peers settled in around me.  I tried to concentrate on my surroundings and describe what I saw, but the chatter of my neighbors overwhelmed my attention.  Their constant talking made me begin to think of the distractions I deal with in my own life.  After obtaining a mild degree of concentration, I gazed upon a group of birch trees that seemed to be reaching out toward the rippling, gray water.  Across the lake I saw many beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow.  As I reflected on these things, I began to relate them to my own life.  As I pondered, I thought of when it happened. 

The divorce.

A typical weekend morning at home quickly became one that I would never forget.  As I walked up the stairs from my room to the living room, my nine year old self could not have imagined what was about to happen.  I reached the living room to see my parents sitting on separate pieces of furniture.  They asked my sisters and me to come sit down as they needed to tell us something.  My mother asked us if we knew how some parents decide to split up and live separately, and right then, we knew.  I cried, my sisters cried, my parents cried.  We took turns being comforted by each parent and I remember how lost I felt.  I was a mouse trapped in a maze of my own emotions.  My mind raced as the world around me seemed to stop dead.  I felt like the birch trees, trying to reach out to something.  Anything.  From then on, my life would never be the same.
The divorce distracted me like nothing else in my life has; but like all distractions, I had to find a way to overcome it.  I decided I needed to accept what had happened and begin a new path, away from how things used to be.  As things became too hectic at my perch near the lake, I started down a new path and once again found goodness in the forest.  I heard birds singing and saw deep red maple leaves scattered across the trail.  On my new life path, I began to find beauty in places I had once overlooked.  Dinner at home with a parent meant more, family time was a treat, and holidays were unexplainable with both parents being happy once again.  I found a large stump along the trail and upon further examination, it turned out to be two smaller stumps that had converged to become one.  Just as the stumps had converged to become one, so did my old and new life paths.  I learned to take aspects from both to make life better.  I used new knowledge of living between two households and old knowledge of spending time with my parents to create a fuller way of life.  However, this new outlook did not develop overnight.  Weeks, months, and even years passed before I was able to come to terms with it all and make the most of the situation. 

Ahead of me were two enormous white pine trees, both of which must have been approaching at least one hundred years of age.  I wondered what those trees had lived through and how they had remained present within their ever changing surroundings.  Those trees spoke to me and immediately reminded me of my parents, who have always stood strong behind me despite our changing lives.

I am now eighteen and a senior in high school, which means I will soon be leaving the comforts of home to take control of my own life.  Our time in the forest was coming to a close, so I began to make my way down the trail, meeting and conversing with various classmates, just as I will be meeting new people as I head off to college.  Whenever I become nervous about beginning a new chapter in my life, I imagine the two white pines, my parents, standing behind me for years to come.

As the time neared ten-thirty, I began to make the hike back to the bus.  It was a short trip, and I was boarding the bus within minutes.  The engine fired and we were off.  The bus echoed with conversation, but I chose to remain quiet.  The two tall pines swayed with the wind as the forest became silent once again.