text: I stepped out into the bright sun~~ ~~~~~~~~ ”Come on, help me,” my sister whined as I threw my bag into the front seat of the car. I looked over to her, throwing a smirk in her direction as I watched her struggle. ”Seems like your managing just fine.” I worked to hold back a laugh, she would surely be mad at me then. But I didn’t want her to be mad, I was in a way to good mood for that. We we’re headed to a secret place, a remote place. A literal island. It was my favorite camping trip of the year. It was the only time of year that my uncle and aunt came down from Washington state. My mom and my uncle are sister and brother, and this trip has been in their family for about four generations now. So its a big deal. “Help me!! You fool,” my sister continued to complain. I rolled my eyes, but walked over to help her throw her bag in the car, also. “We aren’t quite ready to leave yet, I’m running to Walmart-“ I said the name with a groan, it definitely wasn’t my ”go to” choice of store- “with Tim and Britt to get some things for our trip. So maybe don’t wait in the car,” I reminded her. She groaned. “I know.” I nodded, walking away. I saw my aunt and uncle’s white rental car pull up into the driveway and I hopped into the back seat. My uncle is quite the character. That’s one way to put it, at least. On our drive to Walmart, he drove down the wrong side of the road to enter the parking lot, lucky nobody was coming. We just had good laughs. “Are you trying to kill us before the trip?” me and my aunt laughed. He gave a playful scoff, and laughed too. Oh boy, I thought driving was interesting with my uncle. Well, I have never been shopping with him. My aunt went to go find her own things, so I was left to following my uncle around. We we’re headed back and forth forever, talked about “Cheap-y,” which basically was “cheap,” and “tp,” in the same word. But I didn’t realize other people were listing to us until this lady told us where the toilet paper was (we needed disposable stuff for our trip)... so embarrassing. We checked out, and waited for my aunt, but we had lost her. We waited at the checkout forever, and she thought that she had lost us, so she was at the car, and oh boy, did we laugh. After that whole Walmart fiasco, we headed home. Then we were on our way, to the special, once a year, island trip. It was a three and a half hour drive. But it was all good, I made a playlist for trips like this. We cranked up the tunes and we were off, “like a heard of turtles,” my family would say. I chuckled to myself as I thought about my family, quite the group of people we are. Finally we made it to the pavement end. We turned off the music, rolling down the windows, just listening to the gravel beneath our tires, the birds chirping their music in the distance. We made it to the landing. We were almost there. It took forever to unload the boat and the canoe and pack it all. Oh wait, this is the best part of the adventure. There was barley any water in the channel, so we had to walk through, thigh deep in nasty, smelly, squishy muck- mind you- we were also surrounded by horseflies and mosquitoes. “So fun.” But when we all got in the boats, all we had to do was paddle. Me and my mom were in the canoe, my aunt, uncle, and my sister, all in the boat. We made it around that last bend, and we saw it. The island. The pine trees stood tall-well most of them, the ones that weren’t leaned over-they loomed out over the glass lake waters. There was six swans in the distance, and a loon call. My anxiety, worry’s, fears, problems, they all seemed to dissolve in the beauty of this place. This was finally a place where I was out off touch from humanity, a place without judgement. Humanity is pretty messed up these days, so I was finally glad for this. I have been waiting two years for this. We didn’t get to go last year because of Covid. But even now, I couldn’t worry about the worldwide virus. It was like my mind wouldn’t even let me think the thought. We paddled along, then finally, the tips of our boats hit hard ground, making the crunching sound of rocks and sand from underneath it. We carried all our stuff up, and I immediately threw off my shoes. I let my bare toes touch the old pine needles on the ground, letting them get dusty with dirt. We set up the tents, and I just... cried. I don’t know what set it off, but it was all so overwhelming. I hugged my mom, then I heard my aunt call, “group hug!” and I was being surrounded. I let myself be surrounded though, it felt nice. ”Fishen’ time?,” my uncle asked me. I wiped a tear away from my face, chuckling and nodding. My uncle, my aunt, and I all climbed into the boat after grabbing the tackle box and fishing poles. I caught the first, and only, fish so far, and it was a huge Northern. When we pulled back in, rain clouds started coming from the West, and we pulled up to the island. My uncle started a fire, but I stayed by the shore. The sun was starting to set, and it was my favorite time of day. The clouds started to turn into various shades of pinks, purples, and blues. I was covered by the shade of the pines, so I took in a huge breath, smelling the pine and the camp fire. I exhaled, taking a step, right into the last light of the day. Letting the small gust of wind tousle my already messy bun, and I sighed, closing my eyes. This... this was the way to be.