the perfect tree

When I was a little girl, all of the kids I knew wanted to be

doctors, ballerinas, cowboys and policemen...Stuff like

that...When they grew up. I have always been different. I

have never gone with what everyone else wanted. When

people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up,

I would tell them..."I want to look all over the world for

the perfect tree." I still have what it looks like in my

head. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. As a

child you draw the tree with the thick, solid, perfect,

brown base, and the perfectly proportionate round green

top. Sometimes it bore fruit and other times it was just

there as a place for the birds in the picture to sit.

I wanted to find it,

and you know something

funny, I still want to find

it. Anytime I travel I

look for it. An adult

once asked me what I

would do when I found

it. I told them I would

take a picture. Maybe I

was an aspiring photo-

grapher as a child. That

must be why I carry my camera

with me everywhere I go. I will find it someday.