It is morning as I board the yellow bus sitting in front of my school.  Our class is heading towards our school forest that’s about twenty minutes away.  As soon as everybody boarded the bus, classmates start talking with their friends and playing on their phones.  Finally, we arrive and everybody piles off the bus.  With few instructions we are headed into the woods to find a place to sit for a while.

I sit down in some tall, brown grass near a lake.   Morning comes and the fog lifts just before I arrive.  I see a little bit of fog in the distance that has not disappeared yet and the few trees that hide behind it.  As I look across the lake on this peaceful day; it looks like the sea before a storm.  The water is a mirror reflecting anything that is near it.  The blue in the water makes the blue in the sky seem even brighter.  The grass disappears as it approaches the dark, blue water.  Straight across the lake is a field of grass that stretches beyond the horizon line. The trees are reflecting across the lake and the wind has not yet disturbed the water.  The left side of the lake has a mix of green, yellow, and red in the trees.  The right side has a mix of leaves and needles as well but they are all green.  It looks as though fall has only grabbed hold of the left side of the lake.

It feels as though nature is making a decision.

As I gaze upon this beautiful lake, I think of only one thing that it reminds me of.  College.  I have not yet decided on what college I will attend or what I will study.  North Dakota State University caught my attention right away.  I know many people that attend NDSU and the college has a great engineering program.  It seems like it would be a perfect fit for me and I think I would have fun there.  The left side of the lake reminds me of NDSU because it is colorful and looks cool.  Hamline University is also a good school and has a great business program.  I think accounting is easy and a neat profession.  The right side of the lake makes me think of this because it is uniform.  One path can lead me towards the left side of the lake and the other towards the right.
I continue sitting in front of the lake and reflect upon what I will do in my future.  The sun is playing peek-a-boo with the Earth, showing itself every now and then.  The wind starts picking up and the lake becomes disturbed at once.  The trees that once looked so beautiful on the water now look dark and scary.  Now I’m afraid of either side of the lake, the only path I see is straight across the lake.  I do not know what is over there and I can’t see any obstacles that may be in my way.  The fours docks in the water suggest to me two things;  that there are always other people on the same path as you are and people will always be there helping out when needed.  Looking at the lake it seems as though it would be an easy swim across.  But as I walked down towards the water’s edge and touched it, the cold jolts through my body and the distance seems a lot farther than it did before.  It would be a challenge but I think I could still make it.

If I sit by the lake long enough, it will become calm again, the ripples will disappear and I will be able to see everything clearly again.  Perhaps I am suppose to choose the side that first caught my attention.  It may not lead me to the most successful life.  But what is life if I’m not having fun?  Experiences with my brother, Zach, are priceless memories.

As my time in the woods was nearing the end, I get up and grab my notebook.  I glance back at the lake one last time before I walk away.  The grass has started to sway in the wind and the leaves continue falling from the trees.  The ripples on the water grew as the sun climbed higher into the sky.  Once again, everything was peaceful and it is just nature and I.