You know when you’re little and there was always that one place to go that was like your little haven? Mine was the big tree in the backyard. My life was growing up in this tree. I was always climbing it and sitting on my favorite branch or inside the hole in the trunk.

My first love occurred in this tree. Since I lived right in back of a park, the tree was technically in the park, next to the creek. His name was Casey and mine is Maysie. Cute huh? We met when he saw me all the way up at my branch and climbed up to meet me. It was like Rapunzel’s story. I was eleven and he had just turned twelve. We met there many times after that and when we went off to middle school, we were in the same school. In the middle of sixth grade, he asked me out and I had to say yes. We carved our names in the tree above the hole, he liked it there.We went out ‘til tenth grade and then he moved away, “It’s for the best,” he said. I was heartbroken.

Today, a stump is the only thing left. When I traveled home, I saw and wept.