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Once upon a time, there was a dead end road. In the middle of the dead end road, on the left hand side there was a blue gravel driveway. The driveway led up to a big white house with a green roof. All around the white house were all different kinds of trees. There were maple trees, oak trees, walnut trees, and most of all pine trees. In the front yard, on the right side of the blue driveway, there was a garden. Around the garden there were even more trees. The biggest tree was in between the house and the garden. That tree was the largest tree in the whole world, in the eyes of the little girl who lived in the white house.
The little girl spent days in the giant tree. According to her it was the safest place in the world. Occasionally she would meet new friends up in the tree; the birds would land on her shoulder, the squirrels would sit beside her on the branches. Each day the little girl would keep climbing higher and higher up into tree, until one day she fell. She fell from the top of the tree and got the wind knocked out of her. After that day, she refused to climb up the tree. The tree she loved became her greatest enemy.
For the years after the little girl would look at the tree in disgust every time she walked by it. Instead of climbing the tree, she started going on walks. She started noticing the rest of her house. Noticing everything that the land surrounding her house could offer. She would walk into the alfalfa field when she needed to be alone. The field became the only place that she felt comfortable anymore, and the only place she wouldn’t think of the tree. Everywhere else she went she only could see and think of the tree. When it would rain, she would put on her rain boots and find the biggest puddle in the alfalfa field. She would go outside and splash in that biggest puddle. After a while though she got bored of her land. The land around her house couldn’t offer her everything that she wanted anymore. The land couldn’t fill the void of the missing tree.
Instead of going on walks the little girl started to spend her time with friends. She thought that her house was the most boring place in the entire world. So she would go to town and spend time with her friends there. She had many friends after she began hanging out in town. She no longer remembered when the birds and the squirrels were her friends; she had real friends now. Little did she know that her human friends weren’t real friends. They would soon betray her and talk about her behind her back. One day she overheard them talking about her. When she asked about what they were saying, they began calling her names to her face. Not knowing how to make her friends stop calling her names, she stopped going to town. Soon she just stopped hanging out in town. Never to speak to them again after the way they treated her.
Again, the little girl started hanging out at her own house. She stayed inside because she figured there was nothing to do in the yard, but look at the big ugly tree in the center of the yard. She watched a lot of television and tried to keep up on her homework. She didn’t have any friends at school, so she kept her earbuds in and her head down, not wanting to talk to anyone that could betray her ever again. She thought she just wanted to be alone. Soon she stopped watching television, and began to spend time in her room more. She stopped talking to her parents and began to only work on homework. Her grades were astonishing, but she didn’t have anyone to be there with her.
One day the little girl decided she would go for a walk. She went out where the alfalfa field was. The trail the little girl made, and remembered so vividly was gone. The trail had become overgrown. Noticing this, she made her own path through the thick, stringy grass. She went out to where the biggest puddle was supposed to be, but it was gone; dried up, with only a blotchy spot of mud left in its place. She walked through the alfalfa field, but the alfalfa was all gone. Left in its place was nothing except for the weeds that would never account for anything. The places she once loved became nothing without her even noticing. Now that she noticed the absence of her favorite places, she no longer thought there was any way for her to get all of it back. For a long time, she realized that there was only place she truly wanted to be. The safest place in the world to her.
In her biggest pine tree, she went as high as she could. She climbed and climbed. The only thought going through her head was to get away from everyone else. To get away from her worries, and just be happy again. Finally realizing for the first time in years, that the tree never actually hurt her; the tree was saving her with every branch she gripped onto. She stopped at her favorite place in the tree and took a rest. She began to feel better about everything going on in her life. When the sun started to set she climbed down from the tree. At the bottom of the tree, she walked a few paces away and just looked at the tree from a distance; for the first time she just looked. The tree was a beautiful giant. She still thought it was the biggest tree she had ever seen in her entire life. This time she would never let it go.
For the next years until she graduated high school, the girl climbed the tree every day. Taking the time to enjoy the little things in life, before they would be gone to her forever. After she let everything go the first time, she knew what it felt like to lose all of the things that she loved. The day before she left for college she climbed the tree for the last time. She absorbed every minute in the tree, and the touch of every branch she grabbed onto. The branches were like the strong loving arms of her father. The pine needles were like the soft caring hands of her mother. In the very last moments before leaving, she realized that this pine tree was always her home. No one would ever take her home away from her again.