Yosemite

Despite the fact that "home is where the heart is" is one of the biggest cliches that I have ever heard, it's true. Home isn't where you live; it is where you love    the most. Every year, my family, a small group of close friends, and I would get together and go camping in Yosemite. Although many tourists come from all over the world each year to see the beauty that Yosemite holds, I don't see it as just another popular spot on the map I should visit, I consider it a home. The scenery and friendships I have made at Yosemite carved a special place in my heart.

     Yosemite is no doubt the most beautiful place that I have ever seen. It is filled with vibrant meadows, crystal clear rivers and streams, and enormous Sequoias. In my opinion, every part of Yosemite is breath taking, but the most amazing part of it is the granite mountains. The most famous of all the mountains is probably Half-Dome. The view at the top of the mountain is well worth the estimated 30,000 steps that it takes to get to the top. Hiking up the trail you pass several waterfalls; my favorite of which is Vernal Falls. The trail up to the top of Vernal Falls is appropriately named the mist trail because of the cool mist that bounces off the rocks and sprays onto the trails. Every year before I hiked Half Dome, we would hike up to the top of Vernal Falls and swim in the pools. Despite the fact that the water was barely above freezing, we would still swim in it, just to say we did. The first time I hiked Half Dome, the group and I woke up at five in the morning so that we could have time to hike the trail, enjoy the scenery at the top, and be back at the camp site by around five or six in the afternoon. While hiking the trail we turned a corner and standing right next to us was a baby black bear. In fear of the mom coming back and finding us, we hurried out of there and continued on our way. While up on the top, I was able to see the valley from a completely different perspective. From then on, I saw Yosemite as more than just a popular tourist spot, it was somewhere that held memories that I would always cherish.

     Camping at Yosemite also allowed me to gain new friendships and strengthen old ones. I was forced to spend time with people I hadn't before, and spend time with people who were growing apart from me. My friendship with those people has grown since then; in fact, if it wasn't for camping in Yosemite, I never would've began hanging out with my best friend Gage. One year when I was six, we went to Yosemite with some of my parents friends and their kids that I had never met. They had three kids; Kyle, Summer, and Gage. Gage and I were the same age, so my parents introduced us to each other and let us play. At first, I really didn't like him; I thought that he was spastic and selfish. As the camping trip went on we had to hang out more and more, pretty soon I started wanting to hang out with him because I thought that he was really funny; now we have been best friends ever since. But I didn't only make new friendships in Yosemite, I also strengthened my relationship with my family. My sister had got in some trouble and had begun pulling away from the entire family; she didn't talk to me much and we very rarely hung out. who I had been growing apart from for quite some time. One morning I had got up early and brought my sketchbook with me to one of the streams that I was camping by so that I could draw. My sister happened to come down about twenty minutes later to take pictures of the birds. After we noticed each other, we began talking about what interests us about art and photography and realized that we also had lot of other things in common, especially our tastes in music. Being able to connect with my sister in this way enabled us to grow closer together.

         Now, whenever somebody asks about home, I can't help but think about Yosemite. I'm filled with nostalgia every time I think of the good times that I have had there such as rafting down the Merced River, hiking Yosemite Falls, or riding my bike into Curry Village with my friends. We would go almost every year when I lived in California, but ever since my family and I moved to Minnesota, my parents haven't even mentioned going back to Yosemite. Although I don't think that I will be going back any time soon, I still see Yosemite as my home, and as the place where my heart truly is.

-DT

summer time

As a child, I loved going to my grandma's house during the summer.  I would help her yard work and her bar.  Every morning she would wake us up around 6:30 AM singing "wakey wakey eggs and bakey," at least three times, and if we still wouldn't get up she would go around yelling "Get up you lazy bums!" Then we would go out in her yard and pick rocks and weeds off her beach in front of her house while she was mowing.  She seriously mowed everyday.  Then once we were done, we would go with her to her bar and help with the money by counting and sorting then I would waitress with my sister.  When the guy came to fill up the claw machine with stuffed animals, he would give ne one or two of them.  Then, once we were done at her bar, we would go to her house and watch movies, and eat candy and ice cream and drink pop all night. I loved my grandma.  She was the only person I would ever get up for at six or 6:30 in the morning! -ss

Home...

Within each living thing, there is a force.  We all share it, and I believe it is what connects us.  Because of this, we have the ability to bond with all living things, and I have bonded with, of all living things, trees.  

   Over the course of my entire life, I have been connected with the trees.  Not only because of my name, but because they are a part of me and my life.  Through everything I have experienced,  I have had a tree that  bonded with me in every home I have lived in, and they have all-ways comforted me by being my home.

      A tree has always been home to me because they are calming.  To sit in a tree with lush leaves bursting with life and green light, and to feel the wind gently sway the branches is amazing.  I love to feel the breeze catch the tree and hear it wisp in the branches.  Because this is so favorable, I find myself going to a tree and climbing into it whenever I feel upset or scared.  The trees always remind me that no matter what happens, and no matter where I go, they will be there to hold me in their lovingly strong branches.

RJ

Home

 It's whereever my family is. It's the place I'm loved, I'm accepted, I'm teased, I'm safe, I'm comfortable, I'm fed, I'm clothed, I'm at peace. It's also the place I play and rough house with my family, the place I do my homework, the place I learn new things, the place I sleep, and the place I relax.

It's the place I'm annoyed, I'm bugged, I'm frustrated, I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm senstitive. I know I can be all of these things because my family loves me no matter what. They may get mad, they may yell, they may tease, and they may really drive me crazy, but I know when it comes down to the line I can count on them.

For me the place I call home is not a place, it is wherever my family is. In my life we've called many places home, Southern Utah, Central Indiana and now Northern Minnesota and soon South Central Montana. Of all of these places, Montana feels like home. It's where my mom was born, my grandpa & grandma were raised, my great aunt and uncles live, my great grandmas & grandpas raised their families, and my great grandma lives. It also feels like home because it has mountains, the people are really friendly, and there are lots of wildlife. When I think about where home is for me, I think about all of these things.

Home is something I feel, it's not a place I live.

TK

Home away from home

I’ve been going to Spearhead Lake as long as I can remember, or at least it seems that way.  I go there for summer camp and for family walks.  When I think of Spearhead Lake, I think of loons, painted turtles, frogs, mud, rain, cattails, red-winged blacked birds, wild grapes, old ash.  I remember one night canoeing in a thunderstorm.  It felt like we were the only two left in the world, Niki and I, and there was no stopping us.  We were part of the waves and the wind and the thunder.  There was no difference between us and the spray in our faces.  We were wild, wild, wild.  I felt like giving a wild cry, but it wasn’t a war cry, no!  It was a cry of joy.  Yes, I’m free!  I remember one time when Dan, the naturalist, showed us how to make whistles out of young poplar saplings.  He showed us how to cut a section of the tiny trunk and tap the bark very gently all around it.  Then he showed us how to cut a hole in the whistle in just the right place.  All this might be tricky, but the time you figure out if it really will work or not is sliding the bark off the wood inside.  If you had tapped the bark too hard, then the whole thing would crack.  But, if you tapped it too gently the cylinder of delicate bark wouldn’t come off at all.  I’ve been going to Spearhead Lake so long that it is part of me.

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Home

When Erica told me to write a blog about home, my first thoughts were home? Where the heck IS home!? I don't know where I could call home. Then, I was faced with more questions about where I lived...really, I believe where I live  is considered a 'home base'. I have read the blogs that others have wrote; I am really not the type of person to go to another's home and just act like I belong there.

 I am a very "self centered" person, but not in a bad way.  I just don't feel like I live in one place, I could pack my stuff and go to the other side of the world if I could and I still wouldn't consider this (my home in Bemidji) my home. I know people get "home-sick" but I could leave for weeks on end and still feel like feel like I have a "home". Maybe this sounds weird to you as the reader, but "home" just doesn't seem like the right word to use when explaining where I live. 

Home has meanings other than what I perceive it as; I see home as a shelter, but "home" has a much deeper meaning. Home is where you enjoy going everyday, knowing that when you get there you will be welcomed and loved. Knowing your family unit and having trust is always critical. Home is where you can connect with everyone, where everyone there knows how you are, what you like to do, it's centered around everyone there. It's not where you have people coming and going every so often. Home to me  is culture. Home to me is strong connections with everyone there. Home really and truly is where the heart is, no matter how much your family has gone through you stick together through thick and thin and are able to pull though everything even with all the complications that were faced and the problems to come. 

That's what Home is.

HK