On a chilly September afternoon, I was sitting out in the woods. It was around 7:30 in the evening. I had already been outdoors for an hour and I wasn’t sure why I was out there anymore. It was cold, wet and getting dark. I looked out into the trees and I began to see images. The trees resemble people, dancing in the wind. Trees that reminded me of an army. Trees that made me think of a football team. My football team going to battle.  The changing colors of the leaves made it seem like there were, instead of just my own, two football teams at war. Team versus team. A total war on all fronts.The trees stood their ground as the fight raged on.

All out war.

This war between teams brings to mind war that can happen internally. One that can last one fraction of a second, to one that can last a lifetime. A war that may never subside, like the loss of a loved one. A loss doesn’t always have to mean death, but can mean separation. For example, it can be an older sibling leaving for college half a world away. Separation can also mean a hard breakup. I like to think being outside in nature can help one think about these things and recover from whatever they’ve been through.

I did see some other things besides trees as well. Shrubs, twigs, bushes, and a field of some long grass. The field seemed to be the trees’ battlefield. The field, all torn up from the harvest, was a perfect image of a football field after a game.

There are leaves everywhere. In a pile just to my left, on the ground everywhere, and of course on the trees. The leaves, all different in shape and color, represent diversity among everything in life. The differences are what make them unique.  The leaves do whatever the wind tells them and in Autumn, they fall. They are fall’s snowflakes before the winter’s snow comes.! In winter, they will be covered by snow and ice. They have short lives in the north, on average lasting only a full 7 months. But, their life is not by any means meaningless. They bring nutrients to trees and other organisms that live on or in the trees. I see some of the last surviving ants crawl on to one of the leaves around me. The leaves are some of the most important pieces to the forest.

There is an astonishing amount of detail in the forest. The bark on the trees is different for every tree and not one tree has even close to the same design as another. On one tree I see the face of a person and on another I see almost straight lines down. The different kinds of trees show different leaves and different colors. The pattern of growth is never the same in any tree. The war of the trees shows this. There’s not a single person on a football team that looks like another, they’re all unique, as the trees.

When I am alone, I think of many different things. A lot of emotion comes with the things I think about. One of the things I think about is football,and with football come the emotions of happiness of the past, anxiety of the future, and excitement of the present. Football, to me, is a way of life that needs to be lived out with full intent to never stop improving. By thinking about football and seeing it in all things, I could come up with plays and other things in my head. I try to relate all of my sports to real-life and see what I can do to keep getting better. Being alone in the woods reminds me that most improvement happens alone. When I’m working on my kraft, there’s normally never anyone else working on theirs with me.

The trees remind me of what can become of hard work. I think of the people that planted some of them and I think. I think of how they devoted their lives to making the world a better place, one tree at a time. They are the people who restore my faith in humanity. We need to be like those people. We need to make the world a better place.