Place Where You Live:

Mendon, New York

Mendon, New York is the place I live. For as long as I can remember, the odd mix of suburbia and sprawling forest has been my stomping ground, the deer my distant companions. There is one place that I have treasured especially over the years, a place where any concerns you may have are no longer relevant. This place is Mendon Ponds Park. Within its 2,500 acres, you can find forests that are overflowing with wildlife of every kind as well as ponds that put most lakes to shame. It is at these ponds that you can find me during the summer months, sitting back and watching the world flow by. On windless days, aspiring rocketeers can be seen setting their creations skyward and you can watch as they chase the falling vessels back to earth. It is these days, among the squeals of joy and sulfurous smoke that I am happiest. To see kids of all sized disconnected from their screens and loving the world around them as I do brings a joy that really can’t be described.
If the rockets aren’t flying, I often go for a hike and see the geological oddities that have been preserved there. The park houses not only the well-known kettle hole (kettle lake) known as the Devils Bathtub, but also a peat bog that has a sphagnum moss island floating in the middle. For the skilled botanists, the acidic waters of the bog is home to a spattering of rarer plants and flowers even including some carnivorous ones.
Though I can’t call the grassy hills my land nor the towering trees my watchful guardians, this park truly is a home away from home. I love the smell if the damp earth in the shadows of forest and the sound as the ripples splash against the banks of the ponds. Something just feels right when I whittle away the hours, with just the animals for company, it feels like a flaw has been corrected.