It was Friday evening. The snow was supposed to start and keep going till the next evening. Sledding. It was the only thing on my mind. The snow made my mom worry about getting stuck while driving. At school, the snow made everyone discuss the sporting events that would be cancelled. But I was only thinking about sledding. Yet, by the time I went to bed, the snow hadn’t started. I was worried. What if the forecast changed? What if the snow I’d looked forward to so much never came? When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I did was look outside. I sighed a sigh of relief when I saw that the world was blanketed in gleaming white snow. The lake was frozen and lined by evergreen trees, coated in white. Looking at it made me happy. There is something so magical about snow. I love it. Sadly, we don’t get much snow. Just three or four times a winter. And six inches like today was even more of a rare treat. I was euphoric about my plans to go sledding with two friends and their siblings at a park that is a short walk from our house. As soon as we got there, we ran up the hill and got in our sleds. We made a train by grabbing the rope of the sled in front of us and sliding down at the same time. Half way down the hill, my friend’s sled turned one way and mine turned the other way and they were pulling in different directions. The next thing we knew, our sleds were tangled and we all fell into the snow laughing. Later we experimented with different ways to sled. We sat backwards in the sled. We lay in the sled on our stomachs. We stood up in the sled, using it like a snowboard. I tried to hold on but I kept falling into the snow. I loved the feeling of the soft white snow underneath me, my friends beside me, the view of the evergreen trees surrounding me, the cold air. Perfection. The next day, our parents agreed to take us sledding again. Suddenly, my friend called and said she wanted to try a different place that has a bigger, steeper, hill. “Oh, no,” I thought at first. I was a little bit scared of the big hill but I had no choice. Anyway, how scary could it be? I was excited anyway, sledding is sledding, and I hurried to get ready. When we got there, it was very crowded. The snow was packed so much, it was almost like ice. As I climbed the hill, I felt the ice slipping under my feet. I tried my best to hold on, looking for parts of the snow that were still soft. My friend and I got in our sleds at the top of the hill and started slipping down before we were fully ready. The world zoomed by as we raced down the hill. We weren’t far down the hill when I felt a bump under my sled. I went flying into the air. It was terrifying but also fun and exciting all at the same time. My friend had told me in the beginning that on one side of the hill there were bumps so that you flew in the air. We intended to choose the non bumpy side, but in our rush to start sledding we hadn’t noticed the bumps. I tried doing some of the things I usually do like going on my belly. It was terrifying. I screamed the whole time but at the same time I enjoyed it. Afterwards, my friend said she had enjoyed the scarier hill more. I also enjoyed the thrill of excitement. But going on a scary hill is kind of like eating something spicy. When you put spicy pepper on something, all you are tasting is the spiciness. I would rather just enjoy the small hill and end up laughing in the snow. Of course, in the end, when it comes to convincing our parents to take us sledding, we are all happy with any hill, just as long as we get to go!
Young Bloggers
Alien Serenity
A gust of wind blew, but not a thing seemed to stir. How odd, I thought to myself, shivering as the gale sent spikes of cold into the depths of my body. As if to spite the fact that I wore three sweaters, every swirling movement of the air seemed determined to make me freeze. But where I was made all the discomfort go away. I have traveled to many places, from the towering beauty of the German Alps to the vibrant colors that make up the reefs of Fiji. However, I have found that there is something unique to every place I go, something that makes every trip worthwhile. Often when I think about it, I find the varieties of the Earth we live on stunning. And that is more fact than opinion. The desert was not new to me; I take trips with my family to the high desert of Nevada twice a year. Each year we have a great time, and I have learned that, if you look hard enough, the desert is not such a bland place after all. But the desert I found myself in now was different. Every part of it seemed to scream, “I am not dull in the slightest! And if I have to show that to you by sprouting the weirdest trees you have ever seen, I will!” Yes, I was in Joshua Tree National Park. I had an odd sensation, my brain knowing that I was on Earth, but all of my senses saying I wasn’t, that I was on Mars, with giant rock formations jutting out of the landscape all around me to accompany the trees from another world. The deathly stillness didn’t help my perplexity either. And yet, it was wondrous. It didn’t matter that the none of it seemed to make sense, it just was. There were so many different hues of yellow, green, and brown, all intermingling to form an extraterrestrial landscape. Stacked boulders told tales of the earliest days of existence, the trees a constant chorus of agreement. We spent the day driving to different trailheads in the park, hiking a little ways up them, and climbing boulders until our hands were raw. We walked through valleys, canyons, and washed our dusty faces in a crystal clear pond that sat in a small oasis. It was an experience I will never forget. As the sun began to disappear behind the horizon, I climbed one last boulder, the largest one I could find. Once at the top, I sat down and closed my eyes. The wind whirled around me, blowing my hair over my eyelids, but at that moment, it couldn’t make me cold. I was immersed in the full glory of the Earth, and the only sense I had was one of deep understanding and peace. A feeling of serenity. Later that evening we were sitting by the fireside of the cabin we were staying in. I looked outside the window and found myself gazing upon an endless expanse of stars. Among them was Orion, the full constellation. I thought back on the calm I had felt as I sat on top of the rock, and I thought to myself, How odd. There is something in nature that can only be accessed through a search, a search in which one must ignore the stress of the world and delve deeper into the connection between man and Mother Nature. It is a feeling of peace, of calm, of understanding. It is a feeling of serenity.
Nature Video: Pantanal, Brazil
In this video, I show films I took on a trip to the Pantanal in Brazil. The video features some of the Pantanal’s amazing wildlife. I wanted to create a compilation to remember my trip and educate others about the Pantanal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDis3LzpXt8
