Walden Pond. Surrounded by only the sounds of nature: the birds chirping, the crickets humming, and the slight whisper as the water brushes against the shore. It’s the silent moments like this, that lead me to thinking beyond my everyday thoughts. It’s the silent moments like this, that make me think beyond my normal teenage mind. It’s the silent moments like this, where I only think about life.

With my “overly stressed” brain and “too hard on myself mentality”, I find myself caught up in some of the wrong focuses. I forget how blessed I am to live the life I do. I forget how blessed I am to have a loving and caring family. And most importantly, I forget to look inward and love myself for who I am.

For me, this summer was a turning point. I had great opportunities to travel to London and to Alaska. What both these trips had in common were their ability to open my eyes. They opened my eyes to the different life styles that I don’t experience in “Solon, Ohio”. I experienced tasting new foods, meeting new people, and seeing the beautiful sights of this world. These trips taught me to look beyond my comfort zone and appreciate more than my own everyday life. These trips taught me about myself.
As I sit here and think about how I will end this writing, I realize it doesn’t matter how I end it because sitting here at Walden Pond, for the past hour in this reflection, has brought me one step closer in my journey of discovering, discovering me.