Place Where You Live:

Bradford, PA

Jordon Wagner

Freshman Seminar

Professor Ulin

4 October, 2012

 My Meaningful Woods

As a child, you never know how meaningful a place can be to you.  You never understand what it would be like to lose that place that you love, because when you’re a child you never think it will go away.  I’ve had the chance to love and lose a place that was close to my heart.  This was not only a place; but a memory of my childhood, filled with memories and joy.  I now will revisit that place that I loved, not physically, but through the memories that have lasted a lifetime.

            My old house in Bradford was a beautiful place.  Back in the sticks; a place where the only thing you could enjoy is the great outdoors and the Northern Pennsylvania scenery. I spent much of my time back then in the woods just outback of my house, there felt like my entire world.    Back then we lived in was a much simpler place where kids didn’t sit inside with video games all day, but rather they played outside and explored different areas of where they lived.  I would sit and relax in my meaningful place all year long.  I would make up games to play, and stories to tell my parents when I would come back home.  From the bitter cold snow biting my nose to the beads of sweat on my face during the summer months, my special place was just that, special. 

I also shared my special place with all of my family.  My father, who was a big hunter at the time, always took me back in the woods which I called my own to watch him hunt.  My mother, who didn’t think much about the woods, would take me for a walk just to enjoy the scenery and the woodland creatures.   Sometimes, I felt that my own cousin was the only one who actually could feel for the place as I did.  We would enjoy going outback to sit, play games, and to mostly make up stories which were much better with her help.  Eventually, I made my entire family go down there at one point to show them why I loved the place.

My parents underwent a divorce in which I moved away from that small house, eventually relocating to the neighboring town of Smethport, Pennsylvania. I was a hard move on me because I knew I would not be able to go down to my special place every day, which depressed my beyond belief.  Occasionally I’d get to go back to my clearing from time to time, mainly whenever I was to see my father.  However, my father eventually moved away from that small house too removing my place for meditation completely from my life.

            As I look back and reflect upon how great this simple thing in life was, I appreciate the beauty of nature around me.  I appreciate the small, simple things that make life gorgeous and worth living.  The experience of losing this place has been bitter, yet reflecting back I hold no negative feelings from my childhood.  I wish to someday go back and meditate and find that peaceful state of mind, just like I did when I was a child, only then will I be able to completely understand why I lived it in the first place.