I enjoy being in many places around my house, but I must say that the tree grove behind my house is my querencia. I always look forward to just take a little walk outside to my querencia after the school day to clear my head and think. I instantly feel better if I’ve had a bad day, seeing all the birds and other animals around me. I always feel comfortable and happy in my tree grove. I sometimes sit down and take in the scenery around me or even climb one of the immense trees and enjoy the sight of everything beneath me. The pine trees in the two rows just about seven feet apart, the sweet scent of pine needles, cones, and sap surrounds me when I’m here and makes me feel like I’m a part nature too. This place resembles the woods, just not as vast. It is a very unique and special place to me. It reminds me that everyone, including myself is different and unique and it’s the best to be yourself, not someone else. This place makes me feel so at ease because it is so silent and there are no people with me to criticize me or make fun of me because of who I am and what I like or look like. The ground that I usually sit on is cushioned with pine needles that have fallen off the trees in the past. I have dug into the ground and inches of it was old pine needles. It took me a while before I got to the actual dirt. Me and my sister have also found tons of pine cones. I come to this place when I need to clear my mind and think about all the good times I’ve had to make me feel better than how I did when I first arrived in the pine grove. This place reminds me of all the precious times I need to cherish that I had with family and my closest friends. It also reminds of the bad times, when I’ve come there before and it conjures that I can’t change my mistakes; the past is in the past. When me and my family first moved into our brand new house, I didn’t feel comfortable anywhere, really. I didn’t have anywhere to go because I didn’t know the place. To clear my head, I went for a walk one day and I wandered about my new yard. I came across the tree grove and walked through it; I thought it was the perfect place to relax. I had never seen any other place like it and wanted to tell my family about it, so I did. My sister was the only person who actually ever went back there to see it. Now, sometimes we go there together and we sometimes bring our dogs with us and our dogs sniff about and lay down to rest and clear their minds too. I guess my querencia is my dogs’ querencia too. I always enjoy taking a little stroll down to where I like to relax. Sometimes, if I haven’t gone down there in awhile, I will be a little more fidgety and more insecure of myself. When I do go to my tree grove, I think about the times me and my friends played hide and seek there and we climbed up high in the narrow branches to hide from each other. Jessica and I would always win when we climbed the tall trees. We had to show ourselves because no one would ever find us, but we would climb down the trees when no one was looking, so we wouldn’t give away our “special, secret place”. Our friends always pondered about where we hid and kept asking us until one time when Katie saw Jessica and I still situating ourselves in one of the vast pines. Katie told everyone where we hid and they went to explore the area. We all had so much fun that day, and it was a very memorable and wonderful moment. It makes me feel so relaxed when I think about all the good times I’ve had with people in my querencia. That’s what makes it my querencia, and that’s what makes it feel so comforting and pleasant there. I always feel so calm and so at ease when I visit my small querencia. Smelling the pine sap fragrance, listening to the birds and other animals around me, and just breathing the fresh air makes me feel so much better after I’ve had a rough day and makes me forgive what others have done to me and makes me want to beg people to forgive me for what I did to them. In my querencia, it’s just me and my thoughts; no one else is there to make me feel bad. Someday, the trees will either be gone or forgotten by other people, but I will always remember them and the memories they treasure and remind me of.